"Stabat mater": Lamentation
ca. 1500
Hours of Henry VIII
Illuminated by Jean Poyer
France, Tours
256 x 180 mm
MS H.8, fols. 25v–26r
Gift of the Heineman Foundation, 1977
Catalog link
"Stabat mater": Lamentation
Border: Deposition (fol. 26)
The half-page miniature that marks the opening of the "Stabat mater": depicts the Lamentation. The Virgin, flanked by John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene, holds the dead Christ on her lap. Behind them, on Golgotha, looms the empty Cross; the two thieves have yet to be taken down.
The border illustrates the event that took place just before the Lamentation, the Deposition. The Virgin, again accompanied by John and the Magdalene, awaits the delivery of her dead Son's body by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.