Deploration of the dead Christ

Bertholet Flémal was one of the most talented painters of the Liège school, a nucleus of Italian classicism in the heart of the Catholic Netherlands, conquered by the Baroque vein of Rubens and his emulators. Several painters from Liège spent part of their careers in Paris, where they found dazzling interpretations of French classicism in the works of Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne. Flémal traveled to Paris several times and took part in a number of major decorating projects, including the high altar in the Grands Augustins church, the Hôtel Lambert and the King's apartments in the Tuileries Palace. This Deploration undoubtedly belongs to his first return to his native town, between 1647 and 1650. The painting probably adorned the altar of a church in the Liège region. Its upper section has been amputated: the truncated body of the Virgin at prayer and an angel carrying the Cross can be seen. A mediocre copy of the painting, preserved in the Saint-Remy church in Huy, gives an idea of what the altarpiece looked like before it was mutilated. The subject is similar to a Deploration over the body of the dead Christ, in which the Virgin intercedes with Heaven, offering the body of her son to God to save mankind. This type of composition, which combines the broad expanse of Christ's body with the upward thrust of supplicating gazes, can be found in other contemporary Liège painters, such as Walthère Damery. This painting is one of Flémal's most masterful achievements, combining the restrained elegance of the figures with meticulous care in the rendering of the drapery: Christ's white shroud, spread out or gathered in an infinity of folds and creases, is an undeniable piece of bravura.