The Seven Works of Mercy

religious

In the centre of the seven panels the act of burying the dead is represented, Christ being depicted in the sky on the Last Day. The other six panels represent the acts of mercy (charity): tending the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. Christ appears among the needy in all scenes.

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About the Artist

Master Of Alkmaar

North Netherlandish painter. He was named after a polyptych of seven panels representing the Seven Acts of Mercy (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), commissioned by the Confraternity of the Holy Ghost in Alkmaar for the Laurenskerk. These panels are dated 1504 and signed with a monogram. The figure types and spacious settings are similar to works by the Haarlem painter Jan Mostaert, suggesting that the Master may have been trained in Mostaert's milieu c. 1475. Several other paintings dated between c. 1490 and c. 1510 are also attributed to this master on stylistic grounds. The real artist is thought to have been Cornelis Buys, who is in turn supposed to have been a brother of the painter Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen. Cornelis Buys worked in Alkmaar from 1490 to 1524.

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