The Lamentation over the Dead Christ
A lyrical and profound meditation on pain
Contemporary painter of Michelangelo and Raphael, Fra' Bartolomeo della Porta is one of the most interesting artists of the early 16th century.
His Lamentation over the Dead Christ in the room of Jupiter in Pitti Palace is a dense meditation on pain.
At the top of the painting are Saints Peter and Paul, whose faces were cut out from the frame at a later time in the aftermath of the painting.
On the left stands John the Evangelist, the youngest and strongest of Christ's apostles, who has to support the physical weight of Jesus's body.
The figure of Magdalene embracing his legs as if to hold him back, is the most lyrical moment of the painting. Magdalene embodies earthly despair, a different feeling in comparison with Mary's, expressing a more composed, almost metaphysical pain.
