This impressive devotional image by a follower of Nardo di Cione presumably came from a Florentine monastery. It may originally have been placed above a door or as a lunette beneath an arch, or possibly in a niche above a tomb. Shown as the Man of Sorrows, at once dead and alive, Christ displays the wounds of his Passion.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Man of Sorrows
Artist:Niccolò di Tommaso (Italian, Florence, active 1343–76)
Date:ca. 1370
Geography:Made in Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Culture:Italian
Medium:Fresco transferred to canvas
Dimensions:Overall: 65 x 70 in. (165.1 x 177.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings-Canvas
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1925
Object Number:25.120.241
Inscription: (On cross): . i[esus] . n[azarenus] . r[ex] . i[udaeorum] (Jesus the Nazarene, king of the Jews [John 19:19])
George Grey Barnard American, New York (until 1925)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," June 15–August 15, 1971, no catalogue.
Description of the George Grey Barnard Cloisters. n.p., n.d. [ca. 1912]. no. 66.
Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1926. p. 21, fig. 10.
Offner, Richard. Studies in Florentine Painting: The Fourteenth Century. New York: Frederic Fairchild Sherman, 1927. p. 101, fig. 8.
Rorimer, James J., and Margaret B. Freeman. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Mediaeval Art, in Fort Tryon Park. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1938. p. 46, fig. 23.
Wehle, Harry B. A Catalogue of Paintings: Volume 1, Catalogue of Italian, Spanish and Byzantine Paintings. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1940. p. 13.
Meiss, Millard. Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951. no. 76, p. 124, fig. 125.
Allen, Josephine L., and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1954. p. 72.
Offner, Richard. "A Ray of Light on Giovanni del Biondo and Niccolò di Tommaso." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 7 (July 1956). p. 191.
Offner, Richard. The Fourteenth Century: Workshop of Bernardo Daddi. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, Section 3, Vol. 8. New York: Institute of Fine Arts, 1958. no. 2, pp. 166, 223.
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. 91.
Bologna, Ferdinando. I pittori alla corte angioina di Napoli, 1266-1414, e un riesame dell'arte nell'età fridericiana. Saggi e studi di storia dell'arte, Vol. 2. Rome: Ugo Bozzi, 1969. pp. 83, 111, 327, 330, fig. 7.
Zeri, Federico. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Florentine School. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1971. p. 35.
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1972. pp. 150, 358, 606.
Boskovits, Miklós. Pittura fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento. Florence: Edam, 1975. no. 108, pp. 202–3.
Schrader, J. L. "George Grey Barnard: The Cloisters and the Abbaye." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 37, no. 1 (Summer 1979). p. 30, fig. 40.
Baetjer, Katharine. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. Vol. 1. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. p. 136.
Baetjer, Katharine. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. Vol. 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. p. 9.
La Favia, Louis M. The Man of Sorrows: Its Origin and Development in Trecento Florentine Painting. Rome: Sanguis, 1980. pp. 74, 76, fig. 42.
Belting, Hans. Das Bild und sein Publikum im Mittelalter: Form und Funktion früher Bildtafeln der Passion. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1981. p. 118, fig. 36.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Notable Acquisitions, 1981-1982 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) (1982). p. 37.
Belting, Hans. L'arte e il suo pubblico: Funzione e forme delle antiche immagini della passione. Bologna: Nuova Alfa Editoriale, 1986. p. 84, illus.
Belting, Hans. The Image and its Public in the Middle Ages: Form and Function of Early Paintings of the Passion. New Rochelle: Aristide D. Caratzas, 1990. p. 74, fig. 36.
Baetjer, Katharine. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. p. 8.
Husband, Timothy B. "Creating the Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 70, no. 4 (Spring 2013). p. 13, fig. 21.
Attributed to the Master of Pedret (Spanish, Catalonia, 12th century)
ca. 1100
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world, encompassing the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance.
