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The Lamentation

Creator

Flemish Illuminator · 1483–1561

Artist

One of the most celebrated painters of Flanders in the 1500s, Simon Bening was hailed by Portuguese art critic Francisco da Hollanda as the greatest master of illumination in all of Europe. In addition to producing books for powerful aristocrats such as Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, Bening worked for a group of international royal patrons including Emperor Charles V and Don Fernando, the Infan

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Date: about 1525–1530
Medium: Tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf
Culture: Flemish
Department: Manuscripts
Institution: Getty Museum
Object ID: ea607521-2d6a-4ad1-9ae1-2a5b348ee894

From the Getty Museum record

Mourners in the background struggle to bring down the ravaged body of Christ with some sense of dignity. The mourners appear again in front, this time tending to the body, displayed so that the viewer sees it, stiff in death, from head to toe. The viewer is meant to meditate on the body, modeling his or her emotional reactions on those of the mourners. The Virgin cradles Christ's head and puts her hand to her breast, the Magdalene gently holds and looks at his hand, Saint John wipes tears from his reddened eyes, and another woman covers her face so that the beholder is compelled to imagine her expression of sorrow. Simon Bening emphasized the scene's sad tone by setting it in the gloomy light of dusk. In looking through the book, the viewer would have certainly noted this dramatic darkness, for it dramatically contrasts with the bright light of the preceding full-page miniature of Joseph of Arimathea before Pilate.

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