![Ditiek Albrecht Bouts](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Ditiek_Albrecht_Bouts.jpg)
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]
. 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. Retrieved 19 January 2019[The 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
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1490s paintings
1500s paintings
1510s paintings
Early Netherlandish paintings
Bouts
Paintings of the Virgin Mary
Diptychs
Paintings of Christus Dolens