Christ Taking Leave of his Mother

ENGEBRECHTSZ., Cornelis (b. 1468, Leiden, d. 1533, Leiden)
Christ Taking Leave of his Mother c. 1515
Oil on panel, 55 x 43 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The events depicted in the panel are not found in the Bible but in the popular late-medieval Meditationes vitae Christi.

Before the Passover, Christ takes leave of his mother, immediately before he and his disciples set off for Jerusalem. Movingly he embraces the kneeling Virgin amidst the sorrowful Marys and the apostles. Some of the disciples are descending into the valley on the right, with the city gate and walls of Jerusalem in the distance.