Joos spent most of his career in the port city of Antwerp where luxury good, including paintings, were produced and traded. His work combines decorative elements, such as the flutter of Christ’s loincloth, with naturalistic details, seen in the greenish color of his flesh. The weight of the Virgin’s cloak emphasizes her restrained grief, while the agitated drapery and clasped hands of Saint John the Evangelist reflect his distress. The artist set the scene against an expansive landscape divided into three distinct zones—brown for the foreground, green for the middle ground, and blue for the background.

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