The icon of the Bier or the Lamentation

Late 15th century. Northern school
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

This icon was painted by the same artist who painted the icon of the Deposition from the Cross. The same personages are depicted and the artist’s preference for the curved line is even more clearly expressed here than in the icon of the deposition. Thus the curved line of the mourning figure of the Virgin is repeated on a somewhat higher level in the figure of John and then, again on a somewhat higher level, in the figure of Joseph of Arimathea. The straight position of Mary Magdalen is determined by genuine artistry, though the curved line is visible in the way her dress hangs and in the rounded lines of her shoulder and head, a line which recurs beautifully in the inclined heads of the other figures. The dramatic element is perhaps even more strongly emphasised than in the icon of the deposition, for the faces of the women have a deeper emotional expression. Here too it is clear that the artist took little interest in the landscape, for the hills are treated in such a schematic way that they lack all similarity to reality. They rather suggest a series of small chapels or abstract geometrical forms than rocks.

Source: Iconen - Kunst en devotie - T Talbot Rice

The religious picture has been fixed on a solid oak panel, in accordance with the original old Russian technique of iconography with egg tempera and champagne chalk by Ank Landwier-Boonekamp. in 1998.