The Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Cima da Conegliano

The Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Cima da Conegliano

Holding him up

The dead Christ is not laid down but held upright, supported under the arms by his mother and by Nicodemus, while Saint John and the holy women gather around in grief. His body is pale and heavy, head fallen to one side, and he sits propped on a rock. Behind them there is no landscape, only a clear blue sky with a few clouds.

Venetian light

Cima da Conegliano was one of the most gifted followers of Giovanni Bellini, and his pictures share Bellini’s soft, clear light and his love of landscape. The quiet sky behind the grieving figures gives the scene a sense of peace, even in mourning.

A quieter master

Cima never achieved the fame of Bellini or Titian, but his altarpieces fill the churches of Venice and the Veneto, and they have a luminous, gentle clarity all their own.

Where it hangs

The panel is in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.

About this print

Made from a 6,474-pixel photograph of the original, enough to print sharply at up to about 43 inches on its longest side.

Sources: Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice · Wikidata Q3697642 · Wikimedia Commons