c. 1472
Fresco
Ognissanti, Florence
Marked by the signs of grief, Mary is embracing her dead son. Mary Magdalene and St John are holding Christ’s arms and legs, his hands and feet marked with the stigmata. Around the group are six other saints, including, on the right, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Behind them, on the Hill of Golgotha, the trunk of the Cross is towering up in front of a view of the city of Jerusalem.
c. 1495
Tempera on panel, 107 x 71 cm
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan
The stylistic changes in Botticelli’s late work are especially striking in the two paintings of the Lamentation over the Dead Christ (in Munich and Milan). Botticelli was reacting in these pictures to the new religious sensibility in Florence.
As in the earlier Lamentation in Munich, the scene is brought vividly close to the observer, in order to create feelings of sympathy in him. The group of mourners in front of the dark rock tomb is arranged in the form of a cross. At its top is Joseph of Arimathea. He is gazing painfully up to heaven as he holds out the instruments of Christ’s Passion.
1615-17
Oil on canvas, 99 x 125,5 cm
Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti, Genoa
Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Luca Signorelli
1502
Wood, 270 x 240 cm
Museo Diocesano, Cortona