O Varão de Dores nos braços da Virgem

In the 1470s Bruges was one of the richest trading cities in northern Europe, and its merchants liked their faith close and portable. This little panel, barely the size of a sheet of paper, was made for exactly that, private prayer held in the hand or propped on a table. Memling shows the dead Christ upright, his wounds turned toward you, while the Virgin steadies him and meets your gaze. It is an image built to be looked at slowly and often. Memling had settled in Bruges in 1465 and become its most sought-after painter, and work this small was as much a luxury object as a devotional one, given the same care he brought to his large altarpieces.