Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa Diptych

The Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa Diptych consisted of two small oil-on-panel paintings usually attributed to the Early Netherlandish artist Aelbrecht Bouts[1] produced between 1491 – 1520.

The panels portray Jesus and Virgin Mary in the moments before his Crucifixion, and are infused with senses of physical and mental suffering.

Jesus is scourged, and captured at the moment shortly before his Crucifixion where he is brought before the hostile crowd to be judged.

According to art historian Elliott D. Wise, "by fracturing the Ecce Homo narrative into a dramatically cropped view of Christ’s head, Bouts evokes the disembodied Holy Face that would soon be impressed on the cloth of the sudarium and that is already replicated with equal authenticity on the heart of the Lord’s co-suffering mother in the right pane".

[4] His father, Dieric, had painted a similar set of oil-on-oak panels c. 1470–75, known as the Christ and the Virgin Diptych, now in the National Gallery, London.