Comparing/contrasting 2 pieces of art from different periods

Period Comparison The two paintings I chose to compare are The Virgin and Child by Rogier van der Weyden (1406, Netherlandish; gallery room 207) and The Crucifixion by Francisco de Zurbaran (1627, Spanish; gallery room 215). These two paintings focus on Jesus Christ, his humanity and his divinity. I chose them because they represent Jesus' fragile humanity through his infancy and death. These paintings struck me as different from the other religious art I had seen because it stresses …

…tie into each other and almost seem to tell a story. Of course it could be argued that these two paintings have nothing at all in common except for the subject. But it doesn't really matter what part of the world they are from or what period in history they lived in. What matters is that they saw something, felt something so strong and so profound that they captured it to be acknowledged by all.