The Lamentation of Christ

Painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Seigen 1577 - Antwerp 1640) Now in the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.

This picture, signed P.P. Rubens. F.1.6.1.4., may have been a contemporary acquisition by the Hamilton family bought directly from the artist by either the 2nd or 3rd Marquis. The Hamilton inventories of c.1638 and c.1643 list a number of such pictures that were dispersed to Brussels as part of the sale of the Hamilton collection of paintings to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in 1651. The collection eventually entered the Vienna collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum via the collections of the Emperors Leopold 1, Karl VI and the Empress Maria Teresa. The core of the collection was Venetian enhanced by some contemporary Flemish and German paintings.

Throughout his working life Peter Paul Rubens painted scenes from the passion of Christ, reflecting his devout Catholicism. The demand for such works of art was fuelled by the earlier destruction of much Catholic art in his native city of Antwerp. Much of his artistic output and that of his studio was devoted to the subject matter of Christ's death and passion from 1610 until 1621-22.

The figure of Christ lying at an angle, revealing the soles of this feet, reflects the influence on Rubens at this date of the artist Giovanni Antonio de Sacchis (1483/4-1539) whose painting of the same subject is in Cremonia cathedral. The head of Christ is inspired by the classical sculpture of the Laocoon Group (1st century BC) which he must have seen in Rome as a young man. An experimental drawing for this picture is in the collection of H. M. The Queen, Windsor Castle.

The painting is listed in the following inventories:
Hamilton Inventory M4/20 Entry 210
Hamilton Inventory M4/21 - 'The thirty case '
Hamilton Inventory M4/22 - 'In the Closet'