The ''Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa Diptych'' consisted of two small

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

-on-

panel Panel may refer to: Arts and media Visual arts * Panel (comics), a single image in a comic book, comic strip or cartoon; also, a comic strip containing one such image *Panel painting, in art, either one element of a multi-element piece of art ...

paintings usually attributed to the

Early Netherlandish Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...

artist

Aelbrecht Bouts Aelbrecht Bouts (1452 - March 1549) was a Flemish painter of the Early Netherlandish era. His first name is sometimes spelled ‘Albert’, ‘Aelbert’ or ‘Albrecht’. He was born into a family of painters in Leuven. Aelbrecht’s father ...

Dresser, 198 produced between 1491 – 1520. For many years they formed the wings of a hinged devotional

diptych A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...

, but are now broken apart. Although their exact dating is unknown, the Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) panel, portraying Jesus bound and crowned with thorns, is thought to have been painted after 1491, while the

Mater Dolorosa Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

panel presents the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows, and was painted after 1517.Wise, 12 Both panels measure 45.5 x 31 cm, although the Mater Dolorosa is slightly larger at 31.1 cm wide. They are in the collection of the

Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum The Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum is an art museum in Aachen, Germany. Founded in 1877, its collection includes works by Aelbrecht Bouts, Joos van Cleve, Anthony van Dyck, Otto Dix and Max Beckmann. History The ' (Aachen museum association) was created ...

, Aachen, Germany, where they are hung alongside each other. The panels portray

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

and

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

in the moments before his Crucifixion, and are infused with senses of physical and mental suffering. Jesus is scourged, and captured at the moment shortly before his Crucifixion where he is brought before the hostile crowd to be judged. By tradition, this moment was just before Veronica offers him a towel to wipe his face, which leaves an imprint and becomes known as the

Veil of Veronica The Veil of Veronica, or (Latin for sweat-cloth), also known as the Vernicle and often called simply the Veronica, is a Christian relic consisting of a piece of cloth said to bear an image of the Holy Face of Jesus produced by other than huma ...

. Jesus is pierced with thorns as blood streams across his face. That the panel is tightly cropped brings the viewer closer to his suffering. According to art historian Elliott D. Wise, "by fracturing the Ecce Homo narrative into a dramatically cropped view of Christ’s head, Bouts evokes the disembodied Holy Face that would soon be impressed on the cloth of the sudarium and that is already replicated with equal authenticity on the heart of the Lord’s co-suffering mother in the right pane". The Virgin is identifiable as the Mater Dolorosa by the tears that stream down her face. Bouts painted many versions of the Ecce Homo during his career. His father, Dieric, had painted a similar set of oil-on-oak panels c. 1470–75, known as the '' Christ and the Virgin Diptych'', now in the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

, London.Christ Crowned with Thorns
.

, London. Retrieved 19 January 2019The panels are sometimes attributed to "the workshop of Dirk Bouts" Of the many versions completed by Albrecht and his workshop, the current diptych is widely considered the most successful.

Notes

Sources

* Dresser, Louisa (ed). ''Catalogue of European Paintings in the Worcester Art Museum''. University of Massachusetts Press, 1974. * Wise, Elliott. "Cycles of Memory and Circular Compassion in a Germanic Passion Diptych". ''Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art'', 2018. DOI: 10.5092 {{Authority control 1490s paintings 1500s paintings 1510s paintings Early Netherlandish paintings Bouts Paintings of the Virgin Mary Diptychs Paintings of Christus Dolens