The Lamentation with Mary Magdalene, Saint John the Evangelist and donors

The prototype by Hugo van der Goes for this immensely successful composition is lost, although an autograph fragment on canvas is in Oxford's Christ Church. Highly faithful early copies are in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples (see M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, IV, Hugo van der Goes, ed. N. Veronee-Verhaegen, Leyden, 1969, pl. 37). Franchoys van Thienen became a master in the Guild of St. Luke in 1602, and had apprentices in 1610 and 1617.