How does this artwork elucidate its Placement and function?
The altarpiece adorned the chapel for the Brotherhood, dedicated to Erasmus by the Dukes of Burgundy in 1475, in the northeastern ambulatory of the church.  A complement to liturgies performed in the chapel, it would have acted as a backdrop to altar, priest, and congregants. Its two side panels, hinged and enclosing both the painted central scene as well as celebrant and participants in Christian services, would have added depth and breadth to the space around the ritual.
Bouts came to be named city painter in 1468, which would have placed him among upper tier of city officials and likely in contact with the members of the confraternity sponsoring the paintings.The triptych has remained in its original setting except after a fire in 1914, and has been lent to six special exhibitions between 1902 and 1998, including the Flemish Primitives exhibition at Bruges in 1902. Since 1998, the neighboring M – Museum Leuven provides curatorial care for the objects in Sint Pieters. The triptych was featured in the 2023 exhibition of eleven works by Bouts n Leuven.Copies of figures or sections of the work exist as paintings in the Münster Landesmuseum, the Henry Cabot Lodge Collection in Washington, the Palazzo Ducale at Urbino, and in the Galerie Stern at Düsseldorf. Other renditions have appeared in prints, and have been taken up in books of hours in the Ghent-Bruges school of miniaturists.
ambulatory Landesmuseum Henry Cabot Lodge Collection Erasmus altarpiece Dukes of Burgundy liturgies Leuven Palazzo Ducale triptych Münster Ghent-Bruges school Urbino Flemish Primitives Christian services M – Museum Leuven