Panel with the Lamentation
Until 1950 this panel lined the Great Hall of Highcliffe Castle in southern England. Constructed in the 1830s for Lord Stuart de Rothesay, the castle was furnished in part with stonework acquired form the ruined royal abbey at Jumièges in Normandy, where the panels might also have originated. In all likelihood they once decorated the backs of choir stalls ordered in 1501 by the abbot of Jumièges.
Carved on The Cloisters' thirty-five oak panels (50.147.1–38) are scenes from the lives of the Virgin and Christ, each set under an elaborate canopy of single or double arches. The exuberant latticework surrounding the arches provides an almost encyclopedic display of pinnacles, crockets, spirals and other fanciful decorations. As in many late medieval works, the figures are foreshortened within their inhabited surroundings, adding depth and drama to the composition.
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