The Mother of God Tenderness with Christ, Man of Sorrows

Small devotional images like this were widely popular in early sixteenth century Europe and give us a sense of the objects people would have prayed with at home or on the road. Here the icon painter has joined two of the most popular images in Late Medieval Europe, the Virgin and Child and the Man of Sorrows. Taken together these images evoke God’s loving humility in becoming incarnate as a helpless baby boy and then being unjustly executed as a criminal in adulthood. Artists worked to create intensely emotive works of art capable of inspiring in the beholder strong sensations of joy, sorrow, hope, and catharsis. Patrons throughout Europe paid to have their hearts moved by beautiful images like these.