A retable, positioned on the altar with its panels open on feast days, usually shows depictions of the life and suffering of Jesus and sometimes even his birth. On each of Weevers’ panels we see a child, an infant, in a short loop. It is naked and vulnerable. Its uncontrolled movements seem to be governed by some kind of higher choreography. A gesture of sadness and abandonment suddenly becomes a gesture of blessing. Reaching out for comfort becomes a gesture of surrender. Its childlike expression shows wondrous gradations of seeing, not seeing and seeing inwardly. The three panels are perfectly and poignantly connected by the moving song of a young woman. But what is she singing? Is it a lullaby or an elegy?

Text by Dr. Joost de Wal
Art historian, Utrecht, the Netherlands.