The Last Rites, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, c. 1545
etching, h 380mm × w 492mm More details
A priest is administering the sacrament of the dying. Most of the women are weeping, the men look on solemnly in quiet resignation. Typical of Vermeyen’s work is the overcrowded, claustrophobic composition: the figures jostle one another in the small space. The women’s grieving faces strongly recall those of the women in Vermeyen’s drawing of the Lamentation.
