UNKNOWN MASTER, Flemish
(active around 1500 in Bruges)

Man of Sorrows with Mary and John and Two Holy Women

1495-1505
Oil on oak panel, 49,1 x 41,9 cm (original frame)
Memlingmuseum, Sint-Janshospitaal, Bruges

The representation is a development of the Man of Sorrows either or not in the company of the Virgin. As mourning emblems of the Deposition the figures of the Virgin Mary, John, Mary Magdalene and a holy woman are grouped around the dead body of Christ, who is nevertheless showing his wounds like a living person. It is a devotional subject. Two angels are holding the sponge and the lance. Under the Cross are the instruments and symbols of the Passion, such as the ladder, the Flagellation column, the scourge, Judas' silver coins, the holy women's vases, the hammer and the dice.

The painting is the work of an anonymous Memling follower. It is not probable that the composition reflects a lost Memling.