The Lamentation
Intended for private devotion, this painting depicts the lamentation over Christ’s dead body as a model for the viewer’s own contemplation and empathy. The figures lifting Christ’s shroud, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, stand out in their contemporary attire, offering a bridge to the artist’s own time. Mary’s limp pose is meant to suggest her cosuffering with her son and affirms her role as coredeemer. The painting may have been exported to Italy, since it inspired a marble relief in the cathedral of Palermo, Sicily.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Lamentation
- Artist: Petrus Christus (Netherlandish, Baarle-Hertog (Baerle-Duc), active by 1444–died 1475/76 Bruges)
- Date: ca. 1450
- Medium: Oil on wood
- Dimensions: Overall 10 1/8 x 14 in. (25.7 x 35.6 cm); painted surface 10 x 13 3/4 in. (25.4 x 34.9 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1890
- Object Number: 91.26.12
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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