This panel once decorated the inner face of the right-hand shutter of an altarpiece made for the Benedictine abbey in Werden, near Cologne. An earlier episode of the saint’s life – the moment of his conversion to Christianity – appeared on the left-hand shutter.

After his conversion, Hubert devoted himself to his faith, and this scene shows him being consecrated as Bishop of Liège. An angel appears before him with a stole (part of the liturgical dress of a bishop, worn around the neck). Behind, a deacon holds a mitre (hat) and a crosier (an ornamental crook), which were only worn by bishops.

A relief sculpture of God the Father enthroned forms the central part of the gilded altarpiece, overseeing the ceremony. He is flanked on either side by Saints Peter and Paul, significant here for their role in spreading the word of Christ as the Church’s first apostles – perhaps a reference to Hubert’s own life of preaching.