Also a =**triptych=, by Dierick Bouts, the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, patron against intestinal diseases: a bishop, martyred at Formia in the persecution of Diocletian. It represents the hideous episode of the unwinding of the saint’s bowels. The executioner on the L. is a good specimen of Dierick Bouts’s rude artisan figures; he looks like a cobbler. In the background is the Emperor Diocletian, richly attired, with a courtier, whose attitude recalls more than one of those in the Justice of Otho. The landscape is characteristic of Bouts’s manner. This is a good, hard, dry picture. The _L. panel_ has St. Jerome, robed as cardinal, with his lion; the R. has St. Anthony, accompanied by a vanquished demon. This, however, is a St. Anthony as the abbot, not as the hermit in the desert.
On the roof of the _fourth chapel_ have recently been discovered some frescoes, from which the plaster and whitewash is now being removed.
In the chapel next it to the R. is a =triptych=, the Descent from the Cross (covered, the Sacristan will open it: 1 franc); usually attributed to Roger van der Weyden, but much disputed. It is probably a smaller (altered) copy of the famous composition in the Escurial at Madrid (see Conway). The _central picture_ has Christ supported by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, with the fainting Madonna, St. John, and the other Maries. The singularly unpleasing fat cook-like Magdalen, in a rich robe, is a constant feature in the group of Descents from the Cross by Roger and his pupils. Study this picture. The _L. panel_ has a good portrait of the donor, with his two sons, accompanied by his patron St. James the Greater (or St. William?). The _R. panel_ has his wife, with her two daughters and her patroness, St. Adelaide (or St. Elizabeth of Hungary, holding the crown which she gave up for the Franciscan profession?).
In the _sixth chapel_ is a fine Renaissance tomb, representing Adolf van Baussede in adoration before the Trinity, introduced by his patron St. Adolphus, with allegorical figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity. The work is almost Italian in character.
Over the High Altar is a modern figure of the patron, St. Peter, enthroned as pope, and with papal symbols behind him. Left of it is the fine canopy we have already observed from the outside, with scenes from the Passion. The architecture here is striking.