Rogier van der Weyden painted this pair of panels in grisaille (shades of gray) to emulate sculpture. When the panels were closed, these two scenes were visible. When the wings were opened during special services, the vividly painted interior panel(s) were revealed.

Any survey of early Flemish art will include the work of Rogier van der Weyden. He learned his craft in the wake of Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck, who are credited with founding the early Netherlandish school of painting. However, van der Weyden infused his own heightened sense of the dramatic into his religious works. By 1435 his popularity had won him the rank of official painter to the city of Brussels.