Christ

Christ by Aelbrecht Bouts, from the former Charles Sedelmeyer collection and painted around 1490, is likely a devotional pendant to the Mater Dolorosa — a half-length image of Christ designed to be paired with the grieving Virgin in private devotional use. The pairing of Christ and Mary as half-length devotional images was a standard product of the Flemish workshop tradition, with the two images facing each other in a dialogue of grief and sacrifice. The Sedelmeyer collection, one of the important nineteenth-century Paris art dealerships, channeled many early Flemish paintings to collectors across Europe.

The half-length image of Christ typically shows him in the Man of Sorrows type — displaying the wounds of the Passion or gazing in contemplation — rendered with the careful, luminous flesh painting of the Bouts workshop tradition. The dark background and three-quarter illumination of the face are standard conventions of the devotional panel format.