. As with the disembodied text, the landscape segues across the panel to form a continuous whole. Inscription and free floating text play a major role in the work. Each interior panel contains Latin inscriptions issuing from the figures' mouths or floating above them, serving as either
speech bubbles or commentary. They are echoed by the words inscribed on the cross of the left exterior panel. The texts are all taken from the
Gospel of John, except for that of the Virgin's, which comes from the
Gospel of Luke. The words of John the Baptist curve upwards from his mouth to the top right corner of the frame, and seem to join those of the Virgin in the center panel, which in turn flow along the top of the center panel. The words of the Magdalen, in contrast, form a flat horizontal line, breaking the curved left to right continuity of the text of the left and central panels. Similarly The Magdalene's words differ from that of the other panels; they are not uttered by her and instead consist as a detached commentary on her. It is perhaps because of this that they are not rendered with, as art historian Alfred Acres puts it, the "sinuous grace" of the others, as they are "words written
of the Magdalene not spoken or written
by her."
Interior , center panel Van der Weyden had used the technique of floating inscriptions earlier, notably in the center panel of his c. 1445–50
Beaune Altarpiece, where words appear to float in the pictorial space or are seemingly sewn into the clothes of the figures. The left panel is a half-length depiction of
John the Baptist, with a background showing a scene from the baptism of Christ. John's words float above him as a curved
speech balloon which emits from his mouth. The words, taken from John 1:29, read "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world". his head a near-replica of his depiction in the
Last Judgment triptych. The hand gestures and fingers of each saint are arranged in a highly deliberate and symmetrical manner. The pattern they form across the three interior panels echoes the narrative of the triptych as indicated by the balloons. However, the flow is interrupted in the Magdalene panel, her hand is raised vertically as if a barrier to the other panels, while her text is in a straight horizontal rather than curved.
Exterior When the wings are closed across the central panel, the exterior reveals a
memento mori or
vanitas motif of a skull and cross which is decorated with Latin inscriptions. The outer left hand wing shows a yellow-brown skull leaning against a broken brick or stone fragment alongside the coat of arms of the Braque family – a sheaf of wheat – seen on the upper right portion of the panel. The left frame bears a saying in French uttered by the skull: "See, you who are so proud and avaricious, my body was once beautiful but now is food for worms.." This skull is intended as a "likeness" of the dead Jean Braque, whose coat-of-arms is shown above it, reminding viewers of their mortality. The panel is one of the earliest known examples of a skull used in a vanitas, while the broken brick, cross and inscriptions present imagery of death and decay typical of the genre. Brick in such works usually symbolise ruin, either of buildings or a dynasties, in this case given the inclusion of the Braque family crest, it can be assumed to serve as reminder to members of the latter. Other art historians believe that the skull may not have been symbolically relevant to the Braque family, as they were well-established as advisers and financiers to the
House of Valois. Instead, the argue, it may represent Adam, or a piece of
Golgotha. The right panel contains a cross with a Latin inscription based on
Ecclesiasticus XLI: 1–2. The words read as
o mors quam amara est memoria tua homini pacem habenti in substantiis suis. viro quieto et cuius viae directae sunt in omnibus et adhuc valenti accipere cibum (
O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions! To a man that is at rest, and whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat!). ==Provenance==