The lamentation

This mid-century Lamentation over Christ reflects Jordaens' continued engagement with major religious subjects throughout his career. As the leading painter in Antwerp after Rubens' death in 1640, Jordaens received numerous commissions for large-scale religious works from churches across the Spanish Netherlands. Jacob Jordaens, the most productive and commercially successful painter in Antwerp after Rubens's death in 1640, dominated Flemish painting through the middle decades of the seventeenth century. His mastery of large-scale multi-figure compositions, his ability to orchestrate warm golden light across complex scenes of festivity and narrative, and his characteristic combination of Flemish earthiness with Baroque compositional ambition made him the natural heir to Rubens's tradition in the Southern Netherlands. His enormous output served the aristocratic, ecclesiastical, and civic patrons who continued to commission ambitious paintings even as the Flemish economy contracted in the later seventeenth century.

The painting demonstrates Jordaens' powerful handling of the human figure in extremis, with strong chiaroscuro and warm flesh tones creating an emotionally compelling scene of grief and devotion.