Die Beweinung Christi ("Große Kreuzabnahme")

Diese Federzeichnung überliefert uns eines der berühmtesten Gemälde der altniederländischen Malerei: die etwa 1475 bis 1477 geschaffene Beweinung des Hugo van der Goes (um 1440–1482), von der lediglich ein Fragment erhalten geblieben ist. Die Besonderheit der vielfach kopierten Komposition besteht darin, dass die Trauernden (von links: Joseph von Arimathia, Johannes, Maria, Nikodemus und Maria Magdalena) mit dem bildparallel aufgerichteten leblosen Körper Christi als Halbfiguren nahe an den Betrachter herangerückt sind, was dem Bild eine große Unmittelbarkeit und starke emotionale Wirkung verleiht.

Benesch (1928) bezeichnete das Blatt zu Recht als die getreueste Kopie nach Van der Goes’ Vorbild, da es den mehr als 30 bekannten Gemäldekopien in ausdrucksvoller Mimik sowie Detailtreue überlegen ist und daher wohl direkt vor dem Original ausgeführt wurde. Wie Sander (1992) betonte, gibt die Zeichnung auch die im Originalfragment durch spätere Übermalungen verunklärten Hände Mariens sowie den ursprünglichen Bildausschnitt mit den oben und seitlich angeschnittenen Figuren getreu wieder, während diese in den meisten anderen Kopien willkürlich vervollständigt wurden. Die Zeichnung stellt damit eine wesentliche Grundlage für die Rekonstruktion der goesschen Originalfassung dar.

Der für Blätter aus dem Umkreis und der Nachfolge des Hugo van der Goes typische Zeichenstil mit systematischen Kreuzschraffen und Punkten blieb in den Niederlanden lange gebräuchlich und wurde noch von Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. gegen die Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts in ähnlicher Weise verwendet, was dazu führte, dass man ihm die qualitätvolle Zeichnung sogar fälschlich zugeordnet hat. Aufschlussreich sind die entlang der Figurenkonturen verlaufenden Griffelspuren, die wohl auf eine Stichreproduktion abzielten: Wie bereits Winkler (1964) erwog, stehen sie wahrscheinlich im Zusammenhang mit einem 1586 datierten Kupferstich von Hieronymus Wierix (Hollstein 382 /1), der mit der Wiener Zeichnung nahezu deckungsgleich ist.

Bosch, Bruegel, Rubens, Rembrandt. Meisterwerke der Albertina, hg. von K. A. Schröder und C. Metzger, Albertina, Wien, Ostfildern 2013, Abb. 17, S. 38.

This drawing reproduces one of the most famous

paintings of Early Netherlandish art: Hugo

van der Goes’s (c. 1400–1482) Lamentation or

Large Deposition, executed between 1475 and

1477. Van der Goes was probably born in 1440 in

Ghent. Nothing is known regarding his training.

He was regularly mentioned as a member of the

Ghent painters’ guild between 1467 and 1475.

Subsequently, he retired to the Augustinian priory

of Rood-Klooster, near Brussels, where he lived as a

privileged lay brother and continued to paint until

his death in 1482. Despite his brief, fifteen-year

creative period, Van der Goes is regarded as among

the leading Netherlandish masters, along with the

founding fathers Jan van Eyck (1390/99–1441) and

Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400–1464). His works

were admired by his contemporaries and copied

well into the sixteenth century.

Lamentation is one of his best-known inventions

and the most frequently copied work of

Netherlandish art.1 A small tempera painting

on linen in Oxford, which was probably made

between 1475 and 1477, is regarded—not without

controversy—as the Van der Goes original. Only

a fragment of the work remains.2 The painting’s

composition is considered a further development

of Van der Weyden’s famous Descent from the Cross

(c. 1435/40)3 and of Giovanni Bellini’s (1431/36–1516)

celebrated depictions of the Pietà from between

1455 and 1470. Its distinctiveness resides in the fact

that the mourners, in half-figure (from left to right:

Joseph of Arimathea, Saint John the Evangelist,

Mary, Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene), along with the

supported, diagonally placed, lifeless body of Christ

after his deposition from the cross, are brought

close to the viewer. In this way, Van der Goes

created a new type of devotional image that reflects

profound human feelings by concentrating wholly

on the figures’ gestures and reactions.

Benesch rightly describes the Vienna drawing as

the most faithful copy of the Van der Goes model,

given its superiority over all other renditions in its

expressive gestures and attention to detail.4 Thus,

the sheet was very likely drawn directly from the

original. Gently hatched lines and pentimenti

demonstrate how the artist sought the proper

form and strove to capture the expression of the

figures, as well as their plasticity and materiality.

Christ’s bare upper body is modeled with particular

sensitivity. Furthermore, the draftsman

accurately reproduced the hands of Mary from

the fragmentary original, which were later effaced

by overpainting, as well as the original margins

with truncated figures. In other copies, however,

these details are inconsistently handled.5 As such,

the drawing is the essential link to Van der Goes’s

original. The systematic crosshatching and stippling

are typical of drawings by the circle and followers

of Van der Goes and long remained customary in

the Netherlands. It was still employed in a similar

manner by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526/27–1569)

in the mid-sixteenth century [74, 75], which led to

the present drawing being erroneously attributed to

him. The contours of the figures were later incised

in connection with an engraving executed in 1586

by Hieronymus Wierix (1553–1619),6 which is almost

congruent with the Albertina sheet.

The numerous copies and variations on the

composition served a growing collectors’ market.

In contrast to other Netherlandish masters of the

fifteenth century, Hugo van der Goes was never

forgotten in subsequent decades and centuries.

Indeed, the mental illness that overshadowed the

last two years of the artist’s life may have increased

interest in his oeuvre. Today, the drawing conveys

to us the most accurate rendering of Van der Goes’s

most popular painting, in which pain, sadness, and

emotional compassion are concentrated in a way

that is at once forceful, haunting, and timeless.

 

1. Stroo et al. 1999, 256–63, no. 12; Anne Dubois and Roel

Slachmuylders list around seventy copies (259). According to

Franziska May, more than one hundred copies exist; email to the

author, September 22, 2021. There is a forthcoming publication

planned for 2023: Stephan Kemperdick, ed., Hugo van der Goes,

exh. cat. (Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz,

Gemäldegalerie).

2. Hugo van der Goes, The Virgin and Saint John (fragment

of The Lamentation of Christ), c. 1475–77, tempera on linen,

42 x 46.1 cm, Picture Gallery, Christ Church, University of

Oxford, JBS 231; Sander 1996, 156–71.

3. Rogier van der Weyden, Descent from the Cross, c. 1435/40,

oil on panel, 204.5 x 261.5 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado,

Madrid, P002825.

4. Benesch O. 1928, 4, no. 22.

5. Cf. Sander 1996, 165–67.

6. Winkler 1964, 128–29; Van Ruyven-Zeman and Leesberg

(NHD) 2004, part 2, 180, no. 382.1; copy of the engraving in the

Albertina Museum, DG66333, H/I/20/146.

 

Emily J. Peters, Laura M. Ritter (Hg.), AK Tales of the City. Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel, Cleveland Museum of Art 9.10.2022 - 8.1.2023, New Haven 2022, Kat. Nr. 3