The support is a single vertically grained oak plank, 0.3-0.8 cm thick. The panel is a fragment that has been cut from a larger composition and bevelled on all sides. There is a vertical indentation at top right on the reverse, which is probably the remains of a hole for a dowel approx. 0.6 cm long, which proves that originally there was another plank on the right. Strips of wood approx. 0.8 cm wide were later added to both sides of the panel. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1388. The panel could have been ready for use by 1399, but a date in or after 1413 is more likely. The white ground and the paint layers were applied up to the edges of the support. Infrared reflectography did not reveal an underdrawing. The figures of the Virgin and St John were reserved. The paint layers were generally applied thinly, although the contours of the green garment worn by St John are a little thicker. The lower part of the composition, underneath the Virgin’s arm, was largely painted over, possibly to cover parts of the larger composition to which this fragment once belonged. The upper part of a man’s head is visible in the lower right corner.

Poor. There are numerous paint losses and discoloured retouchings, especially at the top and bottom. The lower part of the painting, underneath the Virgin’s arm, is largely overpainted, as are the added strips of wood on the right and left sides. The varnish is discoloured.

…; sale, Mr * (†, Rotterdam), Dordrecht (A. Mak), 1 October 1918 sqq., no. 23, as School of Rogier van der Weyden, fl. 1,000, to the dealer J. Goudstikker;¹¹Copy RMA; copy RKD. his collection, 1919-in or before 1922;²²Rotterdam 1919, no. 83, as School Geertgen tot Sint Jans; Schretlen 1922, p. 17. …; ? art dealer, Rotterdam, 1932;³³Friedländer X, 1932, p. 127, no. 66.…; collection Dominicus Antonius Josephus Kessler (1855-1939) and Mrs A.C.M.H. Kessler-Hülsmann (1868-1947), Kapelle op den Bosch, near Mechelen, 1936;⁴⁴Note RMA; Rotterdam 1936, p. 40, no. 74, with incorrect measurements. donated, with xx other objects, by Mrs A.C.M.H. Kessler-Hülsmann to the museum, 1940

Object number: SK-A-3325

Credit line: Gift of Mr and Mrs Kessler-Hülsmann, Kapelle op den Bosch

This scene of the mourning St John and the Virgin, which is abruptly truncated on all sides, must once have been part of a considerably larger composition with the Lamentation of Christ. A ladder is being placed against the cross behind the figures, and at the very bottom of the panel is Christ’s left arm, which the Virgin is holding. When the painting was acquired in 1940, its fragmentary nature had been concealed by overpainting this arm and the head at bottom right with St John’s green robe. That overpaint was removed before 1960.⁹⁹See the description in coll. cat. 1960, p. 197, no. 1538 L2.

The composition of this fragment is broadly reminiscent of that on the central panel of Cornelis Engelbrechtsz’s Triptych with the Lamentation of Christ in Leiden, and of his later version in Ghent.¹⁰¹⁰Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal and Museum voor Schone Kunsten respectively; illustrated in ENP X, 1973, no. 74, pl. 65, no. 96, pl. 75. It is difficult to say whether the Amsterdam fragment was part of a self-contained panel with a Lamentation or whether it was the right wing of a triptych with a Crucifixion. In the London triptych by the Master of Delft, the Lamentation is combined with a Deposition.[The National Gallery; illustrated in ENP X, 1973, no. 60, pls. 42-44.] One argument against the fragment being part of a triptych wing is that the reverse is not painted, and probably never was. In view of the fact that the painting is on a vertically grained plank, it seems likely that it comes from a larger, vertical composition.

Similarities in the colouring with soft pastel tints, the painstaking execution, the kind of eyes and the grieving face argue for an attribution to the painter of the triptychs in Amsterdam (SK-A-3141) and London. What is odd, though, is that this rather poorly preserved fragment has not a trace of an underdrawing, whereas the above-mentioned works attributed to the Master of Delft do.¹¹¹¹See the entry on SK-A-3141, and Campbell in coll. cat. London 1998, pp. 326-29. The dendrochronology yields no clues for dating the painting, but one can assume on the basis of the stylistic similarities that it is from the same period as the Rijksmuseum triptych.

(J.P. Filedt Kok)

Schretlen 1922, p. 17; Friedländer X, 1932, p. 127, no. 66; Rotterdam 1936, p. 37, no. 74 (with incorrect measurements); ENP X, 1973, p. 76, no. 66

1960, p. 197, no. 1538 L2; 1976, p. 632, no. A 3325