page_title: Man of Sorrows (Geertgen tot Sint Jans)
section_title: Attribution
hierarchical_section_title: Man of Sorrows (Geertgen tot Sint Jans) / Attribution
caption_attribution_description: English: Triptych with the Entombment of Christ, Oil on panel, 60 x 48.9 cm (central panel without frame), 60 x 22.5 cm (wing without frame)
context_page_description: Man of Sorrows is a small Early Netherlandish oil on wood panel painting completed c. 1485–1495. It is attributed to Geertgen tot Sint Jans and in the tradition of the devotional images of the "Man of Sorrows", which typically show Christ before his crucifixion, naked above the waist, bearing the wounds of his Passion. The panel has an unusually complex and suffocating spatial design, and depicts the mocking of Jesus, and his grieving mother. The panel is steeped in both complex iconography and deep pathos. Christ is in obvious pain and holds his wounds up for the viewer. He looks out while white robed weeping angels bear the Arma Christi -objects associated with his crucifixion and death- float around him. The attending saints include Mary and the Magdalene.
  Man of Sorrows has been described as "one of the most moving...in Early Netherlandish art", and is usually considered a highly emotive and sorrowful work, especially in its description of Christ's pitiful, almost defeated expression and blood-run face. Nothing is known about the lost right hand panel; it may have contained another religious scene or a donor portrait. It is housed in the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht.
context_section_description: The work is attributed to Geertgen tot Sint Jans mainly for its typically simplified geometric shapes, and similarity to his The Lamentation of Christ; a painting in which the faces and expressions of Mary and John bear striking similarity to the present work. The attribution was accepted by both Friedländer and Panofsky. Especially Panofsky was enthusiastic about the panel, but Friedländer did not hold it in high regard. He praised the description of the Virgin, especially her face and hands, and described the depiction of the Magdalene as "realistic...with such carefully observed shadows" and "among the masters best work". However he found the figure of Christ to be "traditional", and wrote that the "absence of spatial elaboration overall is felt to be all the more vexing". Overall the image, he believed, lacked depth of field and compositional balance.
  Panofsky, although he generally admired Friedländer's analysis, disagreed strongly, and in a 1927 treatise on Netherlandish depictions of the "Man of Sorrows" wrote, "As, however, all the seemingly haphazard composition lines lead with compelling force to the face of the Savior, which, lifted out of the image, focuses its large, tearful eye on us, the sum of all the sorrows which he suffers, and all of the mourning that is suffered for him, now appears to besiege us."
caption: Robert Campin, Entombment, c. 1410–15. Courtauld Institute of Art, London
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