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Date : near 1500
Material : Oil painting on wood
Acquisition : Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection (1933)
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European Painting
Painting
Area related
Flandres
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| Description |  |
Here Christ's most beloved followers-the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene-grieves over his body, while displaying it to the viewer. Although David and earlier Netherlandish painters often treated the Lamentation as a private devotional subject, this version may have been part of a large altarpiece devoted to Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin. The painting's history, structure, and centralized composition suggest that it formed the center of the "predella" or lower register of scenes, in this large altarpiece originally made for export to southern Europe. The altarpiece is now divided between museums in Washington, D.C.; Toledo, Ohio; and Edinburgh, Scotland.
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