Description

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. In the scene here three key figures in Jesus’s life—the Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene—gracefully kneel over his crucified body with tears on their cheeks. This work was likely the central, lowest panel, positioned directly behind the altar to be reflected upon during the blessing of the Eucharist, reminding worshipers of Jesus’s bodily sacrifice on behalf of humanity.

Provenance

Probably Cardinal Antonio Despuig y Dameto, archbishop of Valencia (d. 1813). Don Ramon Despuig, Count of Montenegro, Palma de Mallorca, by 1842 [Piferrer 1842, pp. 278, 332]; by descent to the counts of Montenegro, Palma de Mallorca, until at least 1886 [Justi 1886]. Countess René de Béarn, Paris, by 1903; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Mar. 5, 1903, lot 38 [for 12,800 fr, Benoit 1903, p. 105]. Walter Gay, Paris [according to Friedländer, vol. 6, 1928]. V. G. Fischer Art Co., New York and Washington, D.C., 1909–11 [Bodenhausen and Valentiner 1911, p. 184, Friedländer’s photograph of the Lamentation in the R.K.D., The Hague, is annotated Früher Washington (previously Washington) on the reverse]. Marczell de Nemes, Budapest, by 1912; sold, Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, June 17–18, 1913, no. 17, to Kleinberger, Paris, as agent for Ryerson [for 84,000 fr, Kleinberger invoice, June 18, 1913, in Art Institute Archives]; Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago [on loan to the Art Institute from 1913]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.