A great favorite of mine, #12, by the French painter and miniaturist Jean Fouquet, done in 1460. This masterpiece is located in the small town of Nouans-les-Fontaines (Loire), in St. Martin Church. It is the only surviving panel of a much larger altarpiece. The iconography is very original for the time, depicting the moment between the Descent and the entombment, when the body of the Christ, still supported by Niccodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, is laid on his mother’s knees. There is a sense of extreme softness, of silent and restrained sorrow, the inner pain revealed only by the tension in Mary’s hands and in her eyes reddened by tears. All the white on the left is echoed on the right by the tunic of the donor, superbly detailed by the artist. Behind the donor is St. James, holding his pilgrim staff. The modernity and originality of Fouquet is also seen in the position of the figures against a blue/green, semi-abstract background, in a way lifting this sacred moment outside of time and space.