This standing Virgin now lacks the child she once cradled in her left arm. The sculpture may have been damaged in the French Revolution by falling onto its face. It was carved from soft white limestone of a type known to be quarried at Asnières-lès-Dijon, near Champmol. The figure recalls many of th
In the early 1600s, artists from Northern Europe began to take long trips to Italy as part of their artistic training. Bartholomeus Breenberg traveled to Italy around 1620 and probably stayed for at least 12 years. While there, he sketched ancient ruins and the countryside, features he would use in
Scholars now consider this drawing a rare, late work by Rembrandt. Here, Christ meets with Martha and Mary after the death of their brother, Lazarus (John 11:30–36). The composed dignity of Christ's face and his calm compassion contrast with the prostrate figure of Mary and the agitated drawing of t
This painting shows a Carthusian monk kneeling in devotion and prayer before the Crucifixion. It is likely that this panel was intended for the cell of a monk in an unknown monastery. The Carthusians were particularly devoted to the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ, and devotional images were provi
This panel shows the Resurrection of Christ, who steps from the tomb bearing a cross-staff with a banner and gives a blessing with his right hand, while the soldiers guarding the tomb startle awake or continue sleeping. In the background are further scenes, from left to right: Christ in Limbo, the A
This silver plaquette depicts the Resurrection of Christ, with three soldiers sleeping in the foreground and an archer looking up in alarm behind them. It was made in 1605 by the Dutch goldsmith Paulus van Vianen, renowned for his refined figurative relief work.
This panel shows Christ stepping from the tomb holding a banner of victory and raising his right hand in blessing, while soldiers startle awake or sleep on around him. It is attributed to the circle of the Master of the Amsterdam Death of the Virgin, active around 1485-1500.
The ornamental frame of this domestic altar, richly decorated with grotesques, garlands, satyrs and putti, is based on prints by the Antwerp sculptor Cornelis Floris. Its style is a distinctive south Netherlandish variant of Italian Renaissance ornament, dating from around 1550.
This painting shows Christ seated with his disciples around a table in a room lit by candlelight. It is by the Dutch Golden Age painter Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, a pupil of Rembrandt who developed his own successful career as a history painter in Amsterdam.
More than fifteen years after his etched Annunciation to the Shepherds, Rembrandt revisited the theme in this drawing around 1650. It is considerably more austere than the earlier etching, but the emotions remain intense as people and animals are startled by the heavenly apparition.
This prayer nut, carved from boxwood with silver and gold fittings, opens to reveal miniature scenes of the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi carved in astonishing detail. It is only 48mm in diameter and comes from the workshop of Adam Dircksz, active in the early 16th century.
For his depiction of Golgotha, the mountain on which Christ was crucified, the artist chose a high viewpoint. In doing so, he created a vast landscape in which to represent successive episodes of the Passion of Christ simultaneously. This narrative convention was often used in medieval painting.
Pen and gray ink drawing with watercolor by Gerardus Gossen, after a work by Jacopo Negretti, called Palma il Giovane. It measures 32.1 x 26.4 cm (12 11/16 x 10 7/16 in.).
Wtewael depicts when Peter denies knowing Jesus. Few works by this artist are known, and he draws on an unusual combination of styles.
Medium: Black and red chalk, pen and black and gray ink, brush and brown wash, watercolor, and gouache, heightened with white gouache; framing lines in red chalk and graphite (right edge).
Flemish oil on panel painting of Christ on the Cross, made in Flanders about 1575-1605. The panel measures 40.1 x 32.3 cm.
This painting was once part of the Saint Anne Altarpiece, a series of 10 panels set within an architectural frame that hung behind a church’s altar. Gerard David and his workshop produced this large-scale project for export to Spain.
Paintings of the crucifixion in this style are often created as private devotional art for viewing and meditation on Christ's passion.
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy.
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy.
This profile image of a bishop, carved in the dark limestone characteristic of the South Lowlands, is a fragment of a larger funerary relief. Although isolated from its original context, the sculpture still conveys the solemnity of the memorial monument. The image was carved at about the time when the...
Medieval reliquaries often took the form of the body parts they were created to contain. Bust reliquaries for the skulls of saints were placed on or near altars and, by the late Middle Ages, were assembled in large numbers in some church sanctuaries, from Cologne in the north to Ubeda...
Piety in the late Middle Ages encouraged the believer's intense emotional empathy in the suffering of Christ. Here, stone is transformed into flesh by the actual wood thorns piercing the forehead. The capacity for sculptural naturalism developed in Burgundy by Claus Sluter (ca. 1360–before 1406) and Niclaus...
Miniature cradles for the Christ Child were popular devotional objects in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and were venerated, especially in convents, where they were often presented to women taking their vows. This splendid cradle comes from the Grand Béguinage of Louvain, Belgium, established for lay women in the twelfth...
