The highly emotional, wrenching expressions on the faces of the standing figures in this shrine are heavily influenced by the work of the South Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden (ca. 1399–1464). Indeed, it is possible the Spanish workshop that created this work included at least one Netherlandish artist, or perhaps the workshop had access to a sketchbook that included elements taken from Rogier's paintings. The shrine was originally the center section of an altarpiece from the ruined Benedictine monastery of Sopetrán, northeast of Madrid. The two panels with four painted scenes that formed the wings of the retable are now in the Prado, Madrid.
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Title:The Lamentation
Date:ca. 1480
Geography:Made in Castile-La Mancha, Spain
Culture:Central Spanish
Medium:Walnut, paint, and gilt
Dimensions:83 x 48 1/2 x 13 1/2 in. (210.8 x 123.2 x 34.3 cm)
Classification:Sculpture-Wood
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1955
Accession Number:55.85
Inscription: I[ESUS] N[AZARENUS] R[EX] I[UDAEORUM] (Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews [John 19:19])
From the Benedictine monastery at Sopetrán; Private Collection, Spain ; Herr Benoit von Oppenheim, Berlin (as early as 1911) ; Carl von Weinberg German, 1861–1943, Frankfurt (ca. 1920–ca. 1938 when confiscated) ; Haus Waldfried, Frankfurt (von Weinberg estate) (sold ca. 1938) ; Liebieghaus Skulpturen Sammlung (ca. 1938–1950) ; Baron Richard von Szilvinyi, Frankfurt (von Weinberg's son-in-law) (restituted ca. 1950) ; [ Wilhem Henrich, Frankfurt (sold 1955)]
Originalbildwerke in Holz Stein Elfenbein usw. aus der Sammlung Benoit Oppenheim Berlin. Leipzig: Karl W. Hiersemann, 1911. no. 135, pl. 78.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. "'Additions to the Collections,' Eighty-Fifth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1954-1955." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14, no. 1 (Summer 1955). p. 14.
Randall Jr., Richard H. "Flemish Influences on Sculpture in Spain." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14, no. 10 (1956). pp. 257–64.
Frinta, Mojmír. "The Use of Wax for Appliqué Relief Brocade on Wooden Statuary." Studies in Conservation 8, no. 4 (1963). pp. 138, 140, 143, fig. 4, 5.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Medieval Art in Fort Tryon Park. 3rd revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. p. 123, fig. 56.
Müller, Theodor. Sculpture in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1966. pp. 150–51, 190, pl. 186a.
Frinta, Mojmír. "Identified Shutters of a Sculptured Shrine at the Cloisters." Gesta 6 (January 1967). pp. 40–45, fig. 2, 3, 6.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983. no. 34, p. 374.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 148–49, pl. 137.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Sculpture at The Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 46, no. 3 (Winter 1988-1989). p. 16.
Howard, Kathleen, ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. no. 34, p. 406.
"Bilderfindungen der frühen niederländischen Malerei im Spiegel der Tafeln des Meisters von Sopetrán." Pantheon (1997). p. 54, fig. 19.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. no. 98, pp. 137, 198.
Pardo, Francisco Fernández. Dispersión y Destrucción del Patrimonio Artístico Español. Vol. 4. Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 2007. pp. 560–61, fig. 236.
Geelen, Ingrid, and Delphine Steyaert. Imitation and Illusion: Applied Brocade in the Art of the Low Countries in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Scientia Artis 6. Brussels: Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium, 2011. p. 176.
Barnet, Peter, and Nancy Y. Wu. The Cloisters: Medieval Art and Architecture. 75th Anniversary ed. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. pp. 144–45.
Taubert, Johannes. Farbige Skulpturen: Bedeutung, Fassung, Restaurierung. Munich: Georg D. W. Callwey, 2015. p. 216.
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