How you can use this image
This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
You can reproduce this image for non-commercial purposes and you are not able to change or modify it in any way.
Wherever you reproduce the image you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s) and the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other rights holders.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
DownloadNotes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
A woman, standing, clasps her hands tightly around her heavily draped body. She peers out from under her headdress with a sombre expression and slightly pursed lips. This small figure was probably part of a funerary monument. It relates very closely to a ‘master’ prototype once in the collection of Louvre curator Charles Sterling (1901–1991); see the 1971 Musée des beaux-arts de Dijon exhibition on this subject, entitled les Pleurants dans l’Art du Moyen Age en Europe. However, recent expert advice (in 2021) has expressed doubt over its authenticity, due to its relative lack of stylistic and technical finesse, and of suitability for its ostensible function. In particular, the figure is carved completely in the round (with unconvincing drapery folds laid in parallel rows) and yet, if genuine, would need to have a completely flat back to have adhered to the parent monument.
Title
A Woman Mourning
Date
15th C
Medium
marble
Measurements
Plinth: H 5.8 x W 5.7 x D 5 cm;
H 14.8 x W 4.5 x D 4 cm
Accession number
58.5
Acquisition method
purchased from Arcade Gallery, 1958
Work type
Statue