Pagagnotti Triptych

In each panel, the figures are enclosed within archways and columns, and landscapes and buildings are visible through the rear openings. The painting was most likely commissioned by Bishop Benedetto Pagagnotti of Florence and, perhaps according to his instructions, Memling added elements more specific to contemporary Italian painting such as the festoons and putti above the Madonna. The reverse of both wings contains a highly unusual night scene of nine cranes standing beneath a coat of arms (presumably Pagagnotti's).

The art historian Paula Nuttall described the triptych as "a tour de force, pictorially, technically, and conceptually." Memling combined pictorial traditions and painterly techniques from Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden to evoke the sculptural representations with Italian all'antica influences and motifs. Elements from the painting, especially its background, were copied by Florentine artists such as Fra Filippino Lippi and Fra Bartolomeo. A similar triptych exists, executed by the Master of the Legend of St Ursula.