Giovanni Bellini, Lament over the dead Christ
Photogallery
Giovanni Bellini, Lament over the dead Christ
The painting formed the upper part (the cymatium) of the famous altarpiece that Bellini painted in Pesaro for the high altar of the church of S. Francesco between 1473 and 1476. The altarpiece (now in the Museum of Pesaro) showed the Crowning of the Virgin framed in a complex series of paintings. The Lament sees gathered around the body of the dead Christ the figures of Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea. The solemn composition (that suggests a viewpoint from below) is characterized by the engrossed and sorrowful tone of the scene and by the intimate emotional relationship that binds the protagonists.