# Epitaph of a Canon [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GERHAERT VAN LEYDEN, Nicolaus]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Limestone, height 136 cm ## Commentary Epitaph of a Canon 1464 Limestone, height 136 cm Chapel of St. Jean, Cathedral, Strasbourg On the epitaph, an elderly man, one of the Cathedral's canons, pleads, 'Pray for us with pious invocation, O Virgin Mary.' His petition is inscribed on the banderole that playfully wraps around the Gothic tracery above. Mary, crowned as Queen of Heaven, appears by his side. The pairs presence is stressed as their bodies extend well beyond the edges of the architectural frame. Gerhaert's naturalism, rooted in Van der Weyden's art, transforms cold stone into a believable encounter of great immediacy. ## Related artworks - [Christ Child with Grapes]() - [Man Meditating]() - [Man Meditating]() - [Standing Virgin and Child]() - [The Virgin and Child with St Anne]() - [Tomb of Archbishop Jakob von Sierck]() - [Woman's Head]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()