Ercole de' Roberti - Head of a Mourning Woman - Walters 371707

Ercole de' Roberti was one of the leading artists of Ferrara. This painting is closely related to the image of one of the mourning women on a famous fresco of the Crucifixion (destroyed in 1606), which the painter executed in a chapel in the Cathedral of St. Peter in Bologna. It is unusual to see such a detail of a monumental image placed within a carefully delineated framework. It has been suggested that it was based on the cartoon (a preliminary drawing of actual size) used by the artist when painting the fresco. The painting demonstrates the artist's ability to depict vividly an extreme state of grief.