Passion Altarpiece: Man of Sorrows

Hans Raphon's Passion Altarpiece Man of Sorrows panel in Prague's National Gallery is the devotional image at the cycle's emotional heart — Christ displaying his wounds and suffering, a subject designed for intense personal meditation outside the narrative sequence. The Man of Sorrows image, showing Christ half-length with the instruments of the Passion or simply his wounds, was among the most powerful devotional image types of the late medieval church, inviting the viewer to contemplate the personal cost of their redemption. Raphon's placement of this devotional type within a larger narrative altarpiece reflects the German tradition of embedding contemplative images within narrative cycles.

Christ appears in half-length frontality, wounds visible, expression conveying patient suffering rather than anguish. Raphon's Lower Saxon technique renders the wounds with specificity while the face retains dignity. The surrounding instruments of the Passion — crown of thorns, nails, spear — may frame the central figure.