The Lamentation

Luis de Morales

ca. 1560 · Oil on walnut · European Paintings

Morales mined a similar vein of visionary spirituality to El Greco, but often with a morbid sensibility characteristic of the most dramatic Spanish devotional imagery. Life drains from Christ’s body, which collapses from his mother’s arms, as the viewer joins the intimate moment of his death. Unlike El Greco’s rough paint handling, Morales perfected an impossibly soft, smooth surface that contrasts with the figures’ high emotional pitch. An almost obsessive interest in details (eyelashes, teardrops, rivulets of blood) follows Netherlandish painting traditions and lends a realism to this otherworldly vision.

Artist

Luis de Morales

Date

ca. 1560

Medium

Oil on walnut

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Purchase, Alejandro Santo Domingo and Annette de la Renta Gifts; Bequests of George D. Pratt and of Annette B. McFadden, and Gifts of Estate of George Quackenbush, in his memory, of Dr. and Mrs. Max A. Goldzieher, of Francis Neilson, of Dr. Foo Chu and Dr. Marguerite Hainje-Chu, of Mr. and Mrs. Harold H. Burns, and of Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Logan, and other gifts and bequests, by exchange; Victor Wilbour Fund; and Hester Diamond Gift, 2015