Albert Bouts (after 1451–1549)
»Christ with the Crown of Thorns, Mary in Mourning at Prayer«

c. 1500, Tempera and oil on oak

The paintings represent a particular type of personal devotional image to which Albert Bouts dedicated himself, presumably under the influence of his father Dieric, in the latter’s studio in Löwen.

The works were once joined in a diptych by a now-missing frame, the painted shadows of which are visible on the left and upper margins. Such paintings served the faithful as objects of worship in the privacy of their homes. The development of the devotional image would have been inconceivable without the medieval religious mysticism that diverted the tendency towards greater realism in the 15th century towards an attitude of immersion in the suffering of Christ. [ RK ]