Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Miniature Altarpiece with Jesus Carrying the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, and the Resurrection
Not on view
The complexity of this piece and the delicacy of its carving likely made a protective case imperative. Both the altarpiece and its leather case bear images of the Tree of Jesse, or the genealogy of Jesus—a visual proclamation of his familial descent from the biblical king David.
Along the edge of the case is the motto of the couple that commissioned the altarpiece: riens sans pain, the medieval French equivalent of "no pain, no gain." They kneel at the front of the Crucifixion scene, their coats of arms carved in the frame. Wealthy and ambitious, he was Augustijn Florisz van Teylingen, a church warden and town official in Alkmaar, a city in the north of Holland known since the Middle Ages for its cheese market. In 1503 he married Judoca Jansdr van Egmond van de Nijenburg, a member of a more prominent local family, and they had thirteen children together.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
