Figures from a Lamentation (Nicodemus and St. Mary Magdalene)
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Authors
Giovan Angelo Del Maino
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Lamentation , St. Mary Magdalene , Nicodemus
Alternative Title
Abstract
Raffaelle Casciaro has argued based on the style of the figures that these two sculptures are from a Lamentation group by Giovan Angelo del Maino mentioned in the will of the priest Giovanni Maria Rusconi in 1518 in Morbegno, which includes a clause for a "sepulchrum." (Lamentation groups were often described in documents as sepulchers.) The will calls for eight figures and states that they should be richly painted and gilded, but the six known surviving figures from this group have no traces of paint, gesso, or gilding. Instead, the bare limewood is well-preserved, with traces of carving visible. The roughness of the surface and lack of carved details (such as the pupils of the eyes), suggest that the sculptures were originally to be polychromed, as Rusconi stipulated, but either were left unpainted (because tastes changed or perhaps because of a lack of funds or polychromed with fugitive paints, since lost. An old photograph survives showing the six known statues, including these two, which are now in the Museo del Castello Sforzesco in Milan, whereas whereas the others are in private collections. The figure of Nicodemus is of a smaller scale than the others (given that the figure is standing, not kneeling as the Magdalene does), and so may have been placed behind the other figures or raised on a ledge or plinth in an artificial grotto. He was likely standing on the viewer's right, given that we see his body from the left. The Magdalene, with her hair streaming down and mouth open in noisy grief, was surely supporting Christ's feet. This would remind viewers that she, when Christ was alive, annointed his feet and dried them with her hair. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Museo del Castello Sforzesco, Milan; probably originally the Cathedral of Morbegno
Citation
Raffaele Casciaro, La scultura lignea lombarda del Rinascimento (Milan: Skira, 2000), 176-9, cat. 129, pp. 335-6.