The Presentation in the Temple

Jacques Daret's The Presentation in the Temple, dated around 1434 and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris (Petit Palais), is the third surviving panel from the Saint Vaast Altarpiece. The Presentation depicts the ritual of Purification — forty days after the birth of Christ, Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem, where the priest Simeon takes the child in his arms and prophesies his destiny. Daret again demonstrates his debt to Campin's workshop in the solid, three-dimensional figures and the attention to architectural setting, though the composition remains somewhat conservative compared to the most advanced Flemish work being produced at the same time.

Daret places the scene within a temple interior rendered with a new spatial coherence that owes much to Campin's architectural settings. Figures are individually characterized with the physical solidity that distinguishes the Campin tradition. The infant Christ and the aged Simeon create an intimate focal point within the larger architectural composition.