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Pentagonal wooden panel painted with image of three larger figures and several smaller scenes

In the center of this panel are three light-skinned figures. In the middle is a shirtless man with his arms crossed. He has bloody wounds in his hands, on the right side of his chest, and on his head, where he wears a crown of thorns. To the left is a woman reaching toward the man and looking away from him with a sorrowful expression. To the right is another slumped-over figure looking toward the bleeding man. All three have halos behind their heads. Above and below the figures are scattered small images of figures, objects, and hands.

Gallery Text

This is a rare surviving work by this leading painter in fourteenth-century Naples. It is an imago pietatis, an image of the dead Christ standing in the tomb and displaying his wounds. Gleaming against the dark blue background, and mourned by the Virgin and Saint John, Christ’s body was likely meant to evoke a range of responses, from horror to compassion or even desire.

Surrounding the tomb and the more static central group of figures are the arma Christi, symbols that refer to scenes from the Passion. These jewel-like, brightly colored, and detailed elements invited the beholder to contemplate various events in the narrative of Jesus’s last days. This image represents a complex merging of the Passion narrative with the static depiction of the dead Christ in the tomb, a well-known subject in Byzantine painting.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.49
People
Roberto Oderisi, Italian (active 1350 - 1385)
Title
The Man of Sorrows
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1354
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Campania, Naples
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230884

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2500, European Art, 13th–16th century, Art and Image in Europe
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Tempera and gold on panel
Dimensions
62.2 x 38 cm (24 1/2 x 14 15/16 in.)
frame: 68.6 x 42.9 x 4.6 cm (27 x 16 7/8 x 1 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville Lindall Winthrop, [via Bernard Berenson], New York, NY, by 1923, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1937

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886
Accession Year
1937
Object Number
1937.49
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 151
  • Everett Fahy, "Italian Painting Before 1500", Apollo (May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 377-388, p. 386, repr. p. 385 as fig. 8
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 127, repr. as no. 498
  • James Clifton, The Body of Christ in the Art of Europe and New Spain, 1150-1800, exh. cat., Prestel Verlag (Munich, Germany and New York, NY, 1997), p. 21, repr. in color
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), p. 23, repr. as fig. 5
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), p. 13, fig. 8
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), p. 27, fig. 8
  • Carl Brandon Strehlke, Italian Paintings 1250-1450 in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA, 2004), p. 154
  • Ulrich Söding, Der Schmerzensmann: Bildwerke des Schönen Stils und des frühen Realismus, Sascha Mehringer (Munich, Germany, 2018), pp. 12, 82, repr. as fig. 5 on p.12
  • Sarah K. Kozlowski, Portable Panel Paintings at the Angevin Court of Naples: Mobility and Materiality in the Trecento Mediterranean, Brepols (Turnhout, 2022), pp. 81-83, 205-206, repr. p. 81 as fig. 3.11, p. 206 as figs. 7.24-7.25

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2500 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu