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The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ with Saints
The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ with Saints
The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ with Saints

The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ with Saints

Artist (Italian (Sienese School), ca. 1440-1525)
Dateca. 1500
MediumTempera on wood panel
DimensionsPainting: 20 1/8 x 16 1/4 in. (51.1 x 41.3 cm)
Frame: 28 1/4 x 24 in. (71.8 x 61 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Object number61.192
Commentary

The Virgin Mary cradles the dead body of Christ, whose wounds still bleed from the Crucifixion. John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene help to support Christ’s body and press their cheeks against him in a tender representation of grief. Known as the Lamentation, this moment is not described in the Gospels but forms part of a long pictorial tradition. Behind, six haloed saints, each identifiable by their attributes, witness the scene; from left to right are Saints Dorothy, Ursula, Agnes, Margaret, Jerome and Francis. The panel’s scale and the selection of saints suggest it was used for private devotion.

 

ProvenanceKarl Neumann, Barmen-Elberfeld (currently Wuppertal), Germany, by 1933; Count Alessanro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955), Rome-Florence, July 13, 1934 [as Vecchietta]; Samuel H. Kress (1863-1955), New York, New York, 1939; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1952 [deacessioned]; Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, New York, 1961
On View
On view
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