This is one of eighteen scenes that formed the interior wings of the Bielefeld Altarpiece, which was intact in the Neustädter Marienkirche, Bielefeld, until the church was restored in about 1840. The central panel, a Glorification of the Virgin flanked by twelve scenes, is shown to this day on the church's main altar. As they were originally displayed, the scenes comprised an extensive narrative sequence, beginning with the Fall of Man, followed by the lives of the Virgin and of Christ, and concluding with the Last Judgment. The Flagellation joins a Crucifixion, also from the Bielefeld wings, that the Museum purchased in 1943 (acc. no. 43.161) and that would have followed closely upon the Flagellation in the story of the life of Christ. Three other scenes from the interior wings are preserved in a private collection, Bielefeld, and single panels are in the Oetker Museum, Bielefeld; the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

The artist is named after a triptych of 1431 (Marienkirche, Dortmund) that bears the coat of arms of the Berswordt family. As seen here, his work reflects the influence of the better-known German Gothic painters Master Bertram (active by 1367–d. 1414/15) and Conrad von Soest (ca. 1360–after 1422) and exemplifies the mannered refinement of late Gothic painting on the eve of the Renaissance.