Johann Andreas Rauch (1575 - around 1632), Lamentation of Christ with St Francis, 1610

Born in Bregenz, Johann Andreas Rauch came to the imperial town of Wangen in the Allgäu in 1601, where he became a town painter. He made a name for himself with his so-called ‘Landtafeln’, painted, large-format bird's-eye views of the town of Wangen and its surroundings. The picture from a house altar shows the Lamentation of Christ. The corpse, painted in pale colours, lies in the foreground with his upper body leaning on the lid of the sarcophagus. A shroud is spread out under his body. Mary Magdalene is kneeling at the head, gazing upwards in desperate grief with her hands crossed in front of her chest. Mary, the mother of Jesus, stands on the right with her arms outstretched in mute grief before her son. The blue cloak is pulled over her head. On the left edge of the picture, John is wiping the tears from his eyes with a cloth; Mary Salome and Mary Cleophae are standing next to him. One of them is holding a jar of ointment in her hands and is also wiping her tears. On the right in the background, St Francis stands lamenting in the habit of the Capuchins. He holds a crucifix in his hand, his raised left hand shows the stigmata. The hood of his habit is pulled over his head. This picture not only shows artistic expressiveness, it is also of historical interest. Barbara Neser, widow of the town clerk Georg Neser, died in 1611 and left a state legacy for the foundation of a Capuchin monastery in Wangen. However, the town refused for a long time, so that it was not until 1641 that a Capuchin monastery was founded outside the town gates. It was very probably Barbara Neser who commissioned this painting of the Lamentation and St Francis in the Capuchin habit from Johann Andreas Rauch in 1610. Oil on wood, 43 × 29 cm.