Lamentation (Gerard David)
| Lamentation of Christ | |
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| Artist | Gerard David |
| Year | 1515-1523 |
| Medium | Oil on oak |
| Dimensions | 63 cm × 61.5 cm (25 in × 24.2 in) |
| Location | National Gallery, London, UK |
| Accession | NG1078 |
The Lamentation of Christ is a painting of the common subject of the Lamentation of Christ by the painter and manuscript illuminator Gerard David, originally a wing of a now dismantled and lost altarpiece.
It portrays the body of Christ wrapped in his shroud and being anointed. Mary Magdalene is at his feet, as the Virgin Mary holds him in her arms, weeping for his death watched over by Saint John. Four other grieving figures are present; they may be Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin, and women who followed Christ.
While its exact dating is debated, it seems likely that it was completed between 1515 and 1523. This painting and David's Adoration of the Kings, also in the National Gallery (NG 1079), were two wings from a single altarpiece. The theme of the Lamentation of Christ was common in medieval and Renaissance art, although this treatment, dating back to a subject known as the Anointing of Christ, is unusual for the period. David was influenced by Jan van Eyck's approach to realism. David was innovative in his depiction of religious subjects, which he represented not as icons but rather as approachable individuals. Additionally, David was known for the originality of his treatment of color and light.
For all the known history of the painting it has been together with the NG 1079 Adoration, but this goes no further back than early 19th-century London. Whether the two originally formed part of the same polytych is not quite certain, but it seems most likely. The Lamentation is some 3 cm larger in both dimensions, and its underdrawing "is inconsistent in style and some parts can be reconciled with the underdrawing of the Adoration", but others not. In the two panels the figures are about the same size, and the horizons at the same level, and no other panels of these dimensions are attributed to David or his workshop. Both panels are planed down at the back, and may originally have been painted on both sides, as parts of the wings of an altarpiece on the Life of Christ or Life of the Virgin, with a central panel about four times the size of these ones.
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