The Lamentation

Born in Seville around 1605, Sebastián de Llanos received his first major commissions around 1664 for the town's Cathedral, which included a pietá. The Lamentation shows a similar theme by presenting the Virgin Mary's anguish after her son is lowered from the Cross. However, Llanos includes the figures of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus in the background. The two elders examine the inscription of the Cross, which read "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews" in three languages. During the seventeenth century, painters still paid much attention to traditional iconography and there was much debate about the correct phrasing of the Cross inscription, a topic Llanos references explicitly by including the careful analysis of the tablet in his painting.