Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Mantegna)

Infobox Painting|

---

title=The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
artist=Andrea Mantegna
year=c. 1480
type=Tempera on canvas
height=68
width=81
city=Milan
museum=Pinacoteca di BreraThe "Lamentation over the Dead Christ" is a painting of c. 1480 of the "Lamentation of Christ" by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna.

The painting portrays the dead Christ supine on a marble slab. He is ed by the Virgin, St. John, and Mary Magdalene, who are weeping for his death.

The subject is a theme common to medieval and Renaissance art, although the treatment, going back to a subject known as the "Annointing of Christ" is unusual for this period. Most "Lamentations" show much more contact of the mourners with the body. There are rich contrasts of light and shadow, and a profound sense of "pathos". The realism and tragedy of the scene are enhanced by the violent perspective, which foreshortens and dramatizes the recumbent figure, stressing the anatomical details: in particular, Christ's thorax. The holes in Christ's hands and feet, as well as the faces of the two mourners, are portrayed without any concession to idealism or rhetoric. The sharply drawn drapery which covers the corpse contributes to the dramatic effect. Unique to this painting is a design that places the central focus of the image on Christ's genitals - an artistic choice that is open to a multitude of interpretations. Mantegna managed instead to paint a very specific representation of physical and emotional trauma.

Mantegna probably made this painting for his personal funerary chapel. It was found by his sons in his studio after his death and sold to pay debts. The painting is in the Pinacoteca di Brera of Milan, Italy.

"The Lamentation" in popular culture

A visual reference to this painting [http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/1675215/] is made in the 2003 film "The Return" ("Vozvrashcheniye") by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev. [http://www.ffwdweekly.com/Issues/2004/0923/fest2.htm]

"The Lamentation over the Dead Christ" and the easel on which it was painted form the basis of a literary work in the genre of ecphrasis by Kelly Grovier entitled "The Easel of Mantegna". [http://www.poems.com/poem.php?date=13728]

ources

*"La Grande Storia dell'Arte - Il Quattrocento", "Sole 24 Ore", 2005
*"Faces of Christ", Thomas, D., 1979
*"Andrea Mantegna and the Italian Renaissance", Joseph Manca, 2006