Kneeling Norbertine Canon(?) with Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas in bishop's robes and mitre stands at left before a blue cloth of honor, holding a girdle book by its knotted cover in his right hand and looking down towards the figure of a canon who kneels in prayer at right and who wears a white hooded habit, possibly of the Norbertine order. The tentative connection with the Norbertines is suggested by the presence of a figure identified as Saint Gerlac (Gerlach) of Houthem, kneeling in prayer within the trunk of a hollow tree in the background at right. Saint Gerlach's association with the order dates back to the establishment in 1201 of the Norbertine monastery (convent) of St. Gerlach on the saint's gravesite in the village of Houthem in the Dutch province of Limburg, a longstanding site of pilgrimage where the saint's cult has been historically centered.