St John Altarpiece (Memling) similar Memling work is the "" held at the Louvre, which Georges Hulin de Loo determined to have been completed earlier than the "St John Altarpiece" and the New York panel. The "Cellier Diptych" has the Virgin and Child in an enclosed garden with the same two Saints Catherine and Barbara on the left-hand panel. The composition is remarkably similar to the New York panel and the altarpiece, with the Virgin on her throne and St Catherine and St Barbara positioned to form a triangle. The "Cellier Diptych" includes four additional female saints (with attributes) sitting around the Virgin: St
St John Altarpiece (Memling) it presents a narrative, meant to emulate a vision the donors or viewers would experience when viewing the inside panels. Unlike most altarpieces of these types, Memling's fails to present a single unifying iconographical focus and is quite generalized with themes that seem unsuited for its specific location, according to Blum. She speculates the donors may have chosen the specific iconography, which "celebrated intercessory saints on the interior". It is an unusual painting in that it seems to "have served a double function: that of personal propitiation and that of public altarpiece, which portrayed the role of the religious community