From a distance, the painting screams.

As you approach it, you see that it is all a stillness of silent witness, grief and compassion against a backdrop of outrage.

 

 

An approach through the Cloisters at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  These cloisters have elements from the Abbey of Saint-Denis-des Fontaines in the (historical) French province of Roussillon. 1270-’80. Some modern additions.  Marble.

 

The Crucifixion, with The Virgin and St. John the Evangelist Mourning, 1460, oil on panels.  Rogier van der  Weyden, 1399/1400 – 1464, Flemish.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art.