ANDREA DEL SARTO
(b. 1486, Firenze, d. 1530, Firenze)

Lamentation of Christ

c. 1520
Oil on wood, 99 x 120 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The painting was probably painted (along with a lost Nativity) for the Prior of the SS. Annunziata.

The involvement of the onlooker is a pressing feature of this Lamentation, in which "close-up" is exploited to the full with great theatrical effect. The entire space (which has, however, been cut down along the sides from its original size) is filled by the compact group with the Madonna in the middle, upright in contrast to the lifeless body of Christ, and the two angels with their studied and opposed features. The emotion communicated is of an absolutely direct intensity.




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