The Lamentation of Christ with Saint Francis

When Rubens painted this, Antwerp's churches were refilling their walls. A generation earlier Protestant iconoclasts had stripped and smashed religious images across the Low Countries, and the Catholic revival now wanted pictures that struck the viewer directly. Home again after eight years in Italy and running the busiest workshop in northern Europe, Rubens was the man they turned to. Here the dead Christ is lowered and mourned, his body pale against the white cloth, while Saint Francis of Assisi kneels beside him. Francis was believed to have received the stigmata, the wounds of the crucifixion, on his own body, which is why he is placed next to Christ's. The painting stands over four metres tall. It was made for an altar, to be looked up at.