Cornelis Engebrechtsz. and workshop, 'The Lamentation with Donors and Saints', 1510-1515

A crowd of mourners surrounds Christ’s dead body in this emotionally charged painting. Although not described in the Christian Bible, other early Christian texts and medieval writers told the story. The Lamentation became one of Christianity’s most painted subjects, allowing viewers to share in the grief of Christ’s followers.

Christ has just been taken down from the Cross, which is seen in the background with a ladder leaning against it. At the top, a panel reads ‘I.N.R.I.’. This stands for ‘Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum’ (‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’). The two thieves who died with Christ still hang from their crosses. Christ’s body shows the five wounds from his crucifixion. The crown of thorns and the nails that pierced his hands and feet lie on the ground beside him. The skull and bones remind us that the Crucifixion took place at Golgotha (‘the place of the skull’). Tradition says Adam, the first man, was buried here, linking Christ’s death to humanity’s redemption. The site was just outside Jerusalem, visible in the background.

According to the Gospel of John, Christ was buried in an unused tomb. On the left, Christ’s followers are laying his body in a stone coffin inside a cave. The two men carrying the body are Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. These were secret Jewish converts to Christianity. Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judaea, gave them permission to bury Christ after the Crucifixion. In the centre, the Virgin Mary in blue looks at her dead son’s grey face. St John the Evangelist in red comforts her. St Mary Magdalene kneels to anoint Christ’s feet with ointment from a small jar. She wears rich clothes and her golden hair flows from under a fantastic hat.

Two saints and two contemporary figures frame this biblical scene. On the far right stands St Cecilia. She wears a crown of flowers and holds a sword in one hand. A falcon perches on her other hand. A small portable organ is painted on her dress. This is the most common attribute used to show she was the patron saint of music. In the centre, two women in fashionable early-sixteenth-century clothing flank St John the Evangelist. They are Mary of Clopas and Mary, mother of James. One wears slashed sleeves and holds Christ’s head, while the other clasps her hands in sorrow. On the far left stands the fourth-century St Augustine. He was one of the Fathers of the Church and holds his attribute of a pierced heart. As patron saint of the Augustinian Order, he introduces the kneeling Augustinian nun in a white habit to the sacred scene. She was the patron who commissioned the painting. She was probably a sister at the Mariënpol convent, where Cornelis Engebrechtsz. worked. The painting’s large size suggests it was made as a small altarpiece or memorial panel for the convent, not for private prayer.

The careful underdrawing was applied with a brush in wet paint. This technique is typical of Engebrechtsz. and shows the master’s own hand. He probably also painted the nun and St Augustine himself. His workshop helped with the other figures and the landscape. We can see the quality of expensive gold-brocaded velvets worn by Mary Magdalene and St Augustine. In the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, only the very wealthy could afford such luxury fabrics.