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Notes
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In 1999 this panel was reunited with its pair, an image of the Virgin and Child. Together they formed a diptych, a painting made of two panels joined with a hinge. Christ is shown on the Cross, just after his death – a type of image called the Man of Sorrows. Its origins lie in Byzantine painting (the art of the Eastern Christian empire) but it became popular in the west in the thirteenth century. The Cross has been painted with three different shades of brown, representing the three trees from which it was thought to be made: fir, palm and cypress, interpreted as symbolising the Trinity (God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost). There were many Franciscan friaries in the eastern Mediterranean during this period, so the religious order was familiar with Byzantine imagery.
Title
The Man of Sorrows
Date
about 1255–1260
Medium
Egg tempera on wood
Measurements
H 32.4 x W 22.8 cm
Accession number
NG6573
Acquisition method
Bought, 1999
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
Artist or maker
Master of the Borgo Crucifix (Master of the Franciscan Crucifixes)
c.1250–c.1269
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