It
is related in the Meditations on the Life of Christ by Giovanni de Caulibus
(Pseudo-Bonaventura), how Christ bade his mother farewell at the village
of Bethany before entering Jerusalem for the last time. The theme occurs
first at the end of the Middle Ages and features particularly in German
painting of the 16th cent. The weeping Virgin kneels before her Son.
She is sometimes accompanied by the Holy Women. St Peter may be present.
Another version, somewhat rarer and generally of later date, depicts
Christ on his knees before his mother.
James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, New York: Harper & Row, rev. ed. 1979