Christ as the Man of Sorrows,
oil on panel, 39 x 30 cm, framed

Despite the obviously high quality of the present painting, to date no convincing attribution could be found. The very free and confident chalk underdrawing, characteristic for the period of origin, reveals several changes having been made to the composition. These bear witness to the painting’s autonomous and individual character, indicating that it is not the product of a workshop and in turn compounding the difficulties of attribution. The work’s emotionally condensed expression has led several researchers to suggest that this could have been a Spanish commission, or that it was painted by a Netherlandish artist working at one of the Spanish courts. Attributions to Michiel Coxcie and his circle, or to Marten van Heemskerck, have been proposed. With the drastic naturalism of the stigmata contrasting with the idealized-enraptured facial expression, the present painting is consistent with the tradition of Ecce Homo paintings developed by Aelbert Bouts to elucidate the sufferings of Christ. The motif became popular in the 15th and 16th centuries as the Passion, Christ’s suffering, became a central theme in Western Christianity.