Man of Sorrows (detail)
by HEEMSKERCK, Maerten van, Oil on canvas transferred from panel
The painting is signed and dated on a cartellino upper right: MARTINVS HEEMSKERIC INVENIT/ ANNO MDXXV and inscribed:
NE FLVXVS IRRITVS SIT NOSTRI CRVORIS O(LIM) QVO SANO VVLNVS GENVS BEOQVE LAPS(VM) FOSSVM CATVT TOT A SPINIS MANVS HIAN (=INANES) LATVS PEDES APER(TI) COR FEREVM MOVE(ANT)
(‘In order that our blood may not have flowed in vain, with which I am able to heal wounds and make the fallen human race happy, may the head which was pierced by so many thorns, the poor hands, the side, and the pierced feet all move a hardened heart’.)