Mater Dolorosa

Mater Dolorosa at the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario, attributed to Aelbrecht Bouts and painted around 1490, depicts the grieving Virgin in the devotional image type that had been a staple of Flemish religious painting since the mid-fifteenth century. The Mater Dolorosa — the sorrowful mother contemplating the sufferings of her son — was designed for private devotional use: a small panel to be placed in a domestic chapel or before which a pious household would pray. The image type, associated particularly with the Bouts workshop, was produced in multiple versions for wide distribution to devotional patrons across northern Europe.

The Mater Dolorosa format typically shows the Virgin in half-length, her hands clasped or folded, her expression conveying contained grief rather than dramatic weeping. Bouts renders the pale face and the fine cloth of the Virgin's garments with the careful glazing technique of the Flemish tradition, building up delicate flesh tones over a pale ground.