La Lamentation sur le Christ mort

When Van Dyck painted this around 1629 he was back home in Antwerp, in a short window between two very different chapters. He had spent years in Italy soaking up Titian's warm colour and soft flesh, and within a few years King Charles I would call him to London to become England's court portraitist. In between, he made altarpieces like this for churches in his own city. Mary holds her dead son across her lap while a grieving woman leans in to kiss his hand. The deep blue of the Virgin's robe and the pale, heavy body show what Van Dyck had taken from Venice. He was still in his twenties here, and already the most gifted painter Antwerp had after Rubens, his old teacher.