MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
(b. 1475, Caprese, d. 1564, Roma)

The Lamentation of Christ

1531-34
Red chalk over black chalk, 411 x 234 mm
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

In this Pietà scene the dead Christ is sitting in an almost upright posture on the sarcophagus, supported by a figure standing behind him. The sheet has been a subject of controversy with regard to its dating and attribution. A connection to the figure of the dead Christ in Michelangelo's early Entombment is obvious, but the present drawing is closely related to the Pietà Rondanini, on which the artist worked from c. 1552 until his death in 1564. The latter connection, however, is solely of a compositional nature, as the preliminary drawing for Michelangelo's last sculpture, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, differs from the present Pietà.