Lamentation over the Dead Christ by William Dyce

Acquisition at auction of painting, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, by the Aberdeen-born painter Willaim Dyce (1806-64). This altarpiece owes a great deal to the Italian Renaissance, borrowing its composition from the traditional Italian pietà figure group, where the Virgin, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist mourn over the Dead Christ. Although the Holy Land is suggested in the distance by a walled town of middle eastern character, the trees in the foreground are native elms. Dyce's religious subjects often appear to be in a contemporary, local setting. By marrying the ancient with the modern, the artist brings Christ into the real and present world.