Lamentation
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Authors
Giovan Angelo Del Maino
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Lamentation , Mary , Christ , St. Mary Magdalene , St. John the Evangelist , Nicodemus
Alternative Title
Abstract
This group of life-sized painted wood sculptures enacts the scene of Mary and the other followers of Christ mourning over his death, after he has been taken down from the cross. The group is still in its original church (San Paolo in Gambolò, a small town near Pavia) but the figures have been moved from the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher (reported to be in disgraceful condition already in 1579) and repeatedly restored, most recently in 1988-93, when later repaint was removed to reveal the largely intact original polychromy. Each figures is sculpted separately, and so could be moved -- in fact, in the seventeenth century, the statue of Christ was taken on procession on Good Friday (the day of Jesus' death). Thus worshippers would interact with this theatrical scene, currently raised up in a niche behind a side altar in the church but probably originally more accessible to devotees' touch. Mary, holding her dead son on her lap as she held her baby, faints backward in compassion (which means suffering the passion with her son). The original placement of the figures was probably similar, in that Mary must have been roughly in the middle, Mary Magdalene (who was thought to have annointed Christ's feet and dried them with her long hair) at Christ's feet, and Nicodemus at Christ's head. Nicodemus' outstretched hand likely held a white cloth as the shroud (as in a current arrangement in the church), and underneath that shroud, were surely supports holding Christ up in his mother's lap and his feet in the Magdalene's hands. (Photographs published in Casciaro (2000) show modern metal supports holding Christ's body in this position.) When these photographs were taken in 2018, Christ is strangely separated, his mother's lap empty, and her hand, which should be caressing his body, hovering mid-air. On the basis of style (in comparison to the works in San Lorenzo, Ardenno, for example), these sculptures have been attributed to the late period of Giovan Angelo del Maino. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
San Paolo, Gambolò
Citation
Raffaele Casciaro, La scultura lignea lombarda del Rinascimento (Milan: Skira, 2000), 204-5, cat. 143, pp. 347-8.