Lamentation, near the Cross

This Lamentation near the Cross, dated to 1550, was painted after Metsys’s death in 1530, suggesting it is either a workshop production, a copy, or a misattributed work. The composition follows established Netherlandish conventions for the subject. Its location at the Museum Dom João VI in Rio de Janeiro reflects the Portuguese colonial connections through which many Flemish devotional paintings reached South America. Metsys's religious paintings combine the Flemish tradition of meticulous naturalism with compositional ideas absorbed from Italian Renaissance models.

The composition groups mourning figures around Christ’s body in a traditional arrangement. The technique, while competent, lacks the distinctive sfumato effects and surface refinement of Metsys’s autograph works.