Full title | The Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Three Maries |
---|---|
Artist | Gerard David |
Artist dates | active 1484; died 1523 |
Series | Triptych: Christ nailed to the Cross |
Date made | 1480-5 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 45 × 42.5 cm |
Acquisition credit | On loan from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) |
Inventory number | L1226 |
Location | Room 14 |
Art route(s) | C |
Image copyright | On loan from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), © Photo courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum |
Collection | Main Collection |
The Virgin Mary stands in the centre, supported by Saint John as she witnesses her son’s crucifixion. Mary Magdalene, on the left, wipes tears from her eyes with her left hand; in her right hand she holds the jar of ointment with which she is traditionally depicted.
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The Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Three Maries
Triptych: Christ nailed to the Cross
This painting was once the centre of a triptych (a painting in three parts), and was originally flanked by Pilate and the Chief Priests on the left and The Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Three Marys on the right (both now owned by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp). Together the three panels make sense as a Crucifixion scene, as they include all the characters you would normally find in one.
We don't know when the wings were separated from the central panel. This is one of David’s earliest surviving works, and was probably painted in or after 1491.
Christ nailed to the Cross was once the central part of a triptych; it was originally flanked by two panels now owned by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. On the left was Pilate and the Chief Priests, which shows the Roman governor Pontius Pilate on a white horse surrounded by a group of men, some armed, some in exotic clothes. The Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Three Marys was on the right. It shows a grieving Virgin Mary, supported by Saint John and accompanied by Mary Magdalene and two other women.
The central panel measures 49.5 by 95.2 cm, while the Antwerp panels are both around 45 by 42 cm; if the wings were set in frames 5 cm wide they would cover the central section when closed. We don‘t know when the wings were separated from the central panel.
Together the three panels make sense as a Crucifixion scene, as they include all the characters you would normally find in one. The whole triptych presumably stood on an altar, although we don’t know where; our painting was in northern Italy in the nineteenth century. Perhaps it was made for a private chapel where it would have formed the backdrop for the Mass.
The altarpiece is one of David’s earliest surviving works, painted in or after 1481. It is similar to, though not as well composed or drawn as, his Flaying of Sisamnes (Groeningemuseum, Bruges), which was finished in 1498 but perhaps begun in 1491 or even earlier. The two pictures share a kind of practical cruelty, as the torturers carry out their jobs with brutal efficiency.

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