Dillinger Triptych

The Dillinger Triptych, dated 1550 and associated with Dillingen an der Donau in Bavaria — now held by the Saardom — represents the export of Flemish workshop painting to German-speaking Catholic communities. Dillingen was a significant center of Catholic reform in the sixteenth century: the Jesuits established a university there in 1563 that became a major Counter-Reformation intellectual center, and the city's bishop cardinals maintained close ties with the international Catholic world. Pieter Coecke van Aelst's triptych arriving in such an environment would have served the devotional and liturgical needs of a Catholic community that deliberately sought out distinguished Flemish production in preference to local German painting. The 1550 date makes this among the last works from Coecke's studio; he died that December. The medium recorded as oil on canvas — unusual for a triptych altarpiece — suggests either a later copy or a specific commission.

The transition from panel to canvas in altarpiece production was gradual through the sixteenth century, with Venice leading the shift and northern workshops following later. A Coecke workshop canvas triptych of 1550 sits at the beginning of that transition in Flemish practice. Canvas supports allowed larger formats with less risk of the splitting that plagued large oak panels in churches with uncontrolled heating.