On the Trail of the Lonesome Nun: Giusto de Menoboi’s London Triptych

Speculative and intriguing online lecture from Birkbeck as part of the their Murray Seminar series looking in detail at a triptych in the National Gallery by Giusto de Menoboi.

I must admit its not a piece I was aware of, and I now can’t wait to get back and take a look as Laura Jacobson outlined its possible origins clearly and led us through a series of possible connections between the image and who it may have been made for, making the talk like listening to a fascinating story. I love this sort of art detective work and was very convinced by her argument.

I loved her lively description of the imagery in the work and what made her think it was made for a specific reason, as a gift to a young girl starting her training in a convent. We tend to look at works like this with a Coronation of the Virgin flanked by saints and a stock image but she showed us how the choice of saints and narrative panels can point to a back story.

I won’t give the game away as to who she concluded it was made for as this was her ongoing research but suffice it to say that it linked with a recent three week course I’d done which made it even more interesting to me.

Huge thanks to Laura for sending me a recording of this talk as I failed to get onto Birkbeck’s system to listen to it live.

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