Studies of the Virgin and Holy Women for "The Lamentation"

Studies of the Virgin and Holy Women for "The Lamentation"

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Working in a linear mode, Delacroix here used a hard, sharp pencil to explore postures for a painting of the Lamentation in the recently built church of Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement in Paris. Rather than sketching the figures from life, he drew on his knowledge of a striking Pietà by Italian Mannerist painter Rosso Fiorentino (1530–40; Louvre). In Delacroix’s final composition, completed in just seventeen days, he reversed the orientation of the figures. After being asked to switch chapels at a late stage, he needed to accommodate a light source from the opposite side.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Studies of the Virgin and Holy Women for "The Lamentation"Studies of the Virgin and Holy Women for "The Lamentation"Studies of the Virgin and Holy Women for "The Lamentation"Studies of the Virgin and Holy Women for "The Lamentation"Studies of the Virgin and Holy Women for "The Lamentation"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.