The Sorrowing Virgin and St. John from a Calvary scene were found in 1951 under the altar of the Church of São Roque in Funchal. In 1954, they were included in the Exhibition of Religious Sculptures at the Santa Clara Convent in Funchal, in a set that included three figures from the Laying in the Tomb and the Dead Christ. Following its entry into the Museum 1955, this set up remained unchanged until the 90s. With the remodelling of the Museum that followed the Europália Festival, it was possible to change the presentation of the whole set of figures.
All the pieces referred to above originated in the Cathedral, but they came from the church of São Roque, where they must have been transferred to as early as the 16th century.
The original location of the Calvary set must have been the old chapel of Calvary, later called the Chapel of the Most Holy Sacrament at the Cathedral. In the 1994 remodelling of the Museum, a crucified Christ was added to the set of Our Lady and St. John¹. This figure also came to the Museum from the Funchal Cathedral in 1955, and originally must have been a part of the set.
Thus, this group was the devotional focus of a chapel on the side of the Epistle, founded in the Cathedral by Pedro Gonçalves Clara, in 1508, the patrons of which were his descendents, the Barros Atouguias. Many times, too, these Calvary sets were placed in the triumphal arch, in the space over a lintel, or above the access point, as the first image that the faithful would see when entering the sacred space.
The Sorrowing Virgin and St. John portray two types of pain felt by the death of Christ on the Cross. Mary turns away in a resigned looked, while the apostle looks at the Redeemer with an almost incredulous expression.
The Christ of this set is a rounded figure, with a creased waist, similar to other known examples from the Malines workshops, and whose head has clear similarities with that of St. John of the same set.
Imported shortly after 1508, the group is attributed to an archaising workshop in Malines.

¹ Arte Flamenga, Museu de Arte Sacra do Funchal, Luiza Clode e Fernando António Baptista Pereira, EDICARTE, 1997, p. 126.