Left wing of a triptych with St Valerianus

The Left Wing of a Triptych with St Valerianus by the Master of the Brunswick Diptych, painted around 1500 and now in the Rijksmuseum, depicts Saint Valerianus — the husband of Saint Cecilia who converted to Christianity and was martyred — as a lateral saint panel forming the left wing of a devotional triptych. Triptychs organized a central devotional image flanked by saint panels on hinged wings, and the selection of Valerianus for a lateral wing position indicates a patron with a specific devotional connection to this relatively uncommon martyred saint. The Master of the Brunswick Diptych, working around 1500, was among the last practitioners of the fully Flemish small-format devotional panel tradition before the transformations of the Reformation and the new pictorial styles of the early sixteenth century began to reshape Netherlandish painting. The Rijksmuseum panel extends our knowledge of this anonymous master's range to include lateral saint panel production for complex triptych programs.

The master renders Valerianus in the saint panel format with his identifying attributes of martyrdom, the figure placed in the lateral panel position that structurally balanced its counterpart on the right wing and directed devotional attention toward the central panel's image. The refined Flemish technique in drapery and facial modeling is characteristic of the master's late production around 1500.