From the Middle Ages to romanticism · Mourning around the dead Christ

Between the Descent from the Cross and the Entombment, the Lamentation brings together Mary, Saint John, Madeleine and those close to Christ in an image of shared pain.

The Lamentation represents the moment following the Descent from the cross, when the body of Christ is surrounded and wept before its burial. The scene is not recounted directly in the four Gospels. It develops from apocryphal texts and medieval devotional literature, then became one of the most frequent subjects of Christian art. The elongated body generally organizes the composition. The Virgin supports his head or collapses near him ; Saint John accompanies Mary; Madeleine stands at her feet, sometimes with the vase of ointment; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus prepare the burial. Empty cross, ladder, nails, crown of thorns, open tomb and landscape of Jerusalem place mourning in the story of the Passion. Each era modulates emotion differently. Medieval painters favor the readability of gestures and spiritual participation. The Renaissance balances pain and harmony. THE Baroque uses diagonals, chiaroscuro and body movements to intensify pathos. The four selected works run through these choices. Taddeo Gaddi connects Crucifixion and Lamentation in a continuous narrative. Van Dyck organizes the Descent from the cross like a still unfinished movement. Bellini brings the faces of Christ, Mary and John together in intimate meditation. Raphael gives the transport of the body a dynamic nobility where pain and classic beauty remain inseparable. The "Lamentation" selection notably compares Crucifixion and Lamentation - Taddeo Gaddi and Descent from the Cross and Lamentation - Van Dyck. His reading favors the material.

Lamentation transforms a particular mourning into a shared experience: each gesture around the body invites the spectator to take a place among loved ones.