Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist Mourning

Abstract

These painted wood sculptures of the mourning Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist were originally made to stand on either side of a crucifix. They come from the Spedale di Santa Chiara in Pisa and are currently housed in the Museo di San Matteo in Pisa. Before being moved to the museum, they flanked a crucifix that is still in Santa Chiara. The mourners are generally attributed to Francesco di Valdambrino (the Sienese specialist in wood sculpture), but the crucifix is clearly by a different, earlier artist, and so these sculptures may have been made to transform an earlier, venerated crucifix into a larger Crucifixion narrative, offering the viewers models for how to mourn Christ in their restrained grief. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.