Pietà

This rather smaller copy of the Miraflores Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1440), painted in Spain by an artist from the Netherlands, Sittow or Juan de Flandes, was long thought to be the original. The painter followed his model in every detail, but in the Pietà he changed the colour of Mary’s robe from red to the conventional dark blue. The thinner, less enamel-like style of painting and the slightly broken colouring suggest the later date. The panel has been trimmed at the top.