1-154-710 - Art Media/Heritage Images

'The Lamentation', c1479. Right hand panel of a diptych of 'The Fall of Man and The Redemption'. Mary, supported gently by John the Evangelist, Christ's favourite pupil, bends reverently over the lifeless body of her son. Joseph of Arimathaea is frozen in sorrowful thought. Mary Magdalene, to the left, wrings her hands in agony. In the background are the holy women, one of whom wipes away her tears while the other kisses a nail removed from Christ's wounds as if it were some precious relic. From the collection at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.