GEERTGEN tot Sint Jans
(b. 1460/65, Leiden, d. 1490, Haarlem)

Lamentation over the Dead Christ

1485-90
Wood, 175 x 139 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Geertgen lived in the monastery of St John at Haarlem as indicated by his name (Little Gerard from the Order of St John). He was a pupil of Van Ouwater, his life and work is poorly documented. Two works in Vienna are certainly his and his curiously effective, if naive, style and smooth egg-shaped heads (probably influenced by wood carving) have been traced in a number of works.