This is the altar-piece painted by Hemmelinck for the charitable sisterhood of St. John’s Hospital at Bruges.  The Virgin is seated under a porch, and her throne decorated with rich tapestry; two graceful angels hold a crown over her head.  On the right, St. Catherine, superbly arrayed as a princess, kneels at her side, and the beautiful infant Christ bends forward and places the bridal ring on her finger.  Behind her a charming angel, playing on the organ, celebrates the espousals with hymns of joy; beyond him stands St. John the Baptist with his lamb.  On the left of the Virgin kneels St. Barbara, reading intently; behind her an angel with a book; beyond him stands St. John the Evangelist, youthful, mild, and pensive.  Through the arcades of the porch is seen a landscape background, with incidents picturesquely treated from the lives of the Baptist and the Evangelist.  Such is the central composition.  The two wings represent—­on one side, the beheading of St. John the Baptist; on the other, St. John the Evangelist, in Patmos, and the vision of the Apocalypse.  In this great work there is a unity and harmony of design which blends the whole into an impressive poem.  The object was to do honour to the patrons of the hospital, the two St. Johns, and, at the same time, to express the piety of the Charitable Sisters, who, like St. Catherine (the type of contemplative studious piety), were consecrated and espoused to Christ, and, like St. Barbara (the type of active piety), were dedicated to good works.  It is a tradition, that Hemmelinck painted this altar-piece as a votive offering in gratitude to the good Sisters, who had taken him in and nursed him when dangerously wounded:  and surely if this tradition be true, never was charity more magnificently recompensed.

In a very beautiful picture by Ambrogio Borgognone (Dresden, collection of M. Grahl) the Virgin is seated on a splendid throne; on the right kneels St. Catherine of Alexandria, on the left St. Catherine of Siena:  the Virgin holds a hand of each, which she presents to the divine Child seated on her knee, and to each he presents a ring.

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The Virgin and Child between St. Catherine and St. Barbara is one of the most popular, as well as one of the most beautiful and expressive, of these combinations; signifying active and contemplative life, or the two powers between which the social state was divided in the middle ages, namely, the ecclesiastical and the military, learning and arms (Sacred and Legend.  Art); St. Catherine being the patron of the first, and St. Barbara of the last.  When the original significance had ceased to be understood or appreciated, the group continued to be a favourite one, particularly in Germany; and examples are infinite.

The Virgin between St. Mary Magdalene and St. Barbara, the former as the type of penance, humility, and meditative piety, the latter as the type of fortitude and courage, is also very common.  When between St. Mary Magdalene and St. Catherine, the idea suggested is learning, with penitence and humility; this is a most popular group.  So is St. Lucia with one of these or both:  St. Lucia with her lamp or her eyes, is always expressive of light, the light of divine wisdom.