English, Nottingham, 15th century

F. Cheetham, Alabaster Images of Medieval England, Woodbridge, 2003, fig.80

Cheetham notes that this subject appears in at least 12 recorded examples in panel, including the present example which he published in his comprehensive book on English alabaster (2003, op.cit., fig.80). 

This alabaster carving, which retained a significant amount of original gilding and polychromy, depicts the Lamentation of Christ, who lies left to right on the Virgins lap. They are flanked by figures on either side, with John the Evangelist holding a palm branch and a female figure wearing a fitted dress who could be the Virgin’s sister, Mary Cleophas to their right-hand side, and Mary Magdalene holding a jar standing to their left. A complete altarpiece that is in the Bode Museum, Berlin, indicates that the present panel was placed centrally in a carved altarpiece dedicated to the Passion of Christ as the lower part of the Crucifixion panel.

RELATED LITERATURE

F. Cheetham, English Medieval Alabaster: with a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Oxford, 1984, pp. 196-197