Lamentation

Created: around 1600

Material, technology: oil, wooden panel

Size: 62.4 x 46 cm (cut round on each side)

Description: Copy of the protagonists of Willem Key’s Lamentation in Munich, which is one of the Romanist master’s chefs d’oeuvre displaying strong Italian influence. However, the motif of Mary pressing the head of her dead son held in her lap closely against her is from late 15th century Brugge painting: in accord with the renaissance ideal of beauty, the body of Christ killed in the prime of his life became the focus of the picture. Willem Key’s monumental composition of almost full-length figures was already highly popular in his age and it was much copied.