The Lamentation

A dead Christ lies across the lap of the Virgin Mary, who wears a blue mantle and bends over him, while a weeping Mary Magdalene with loose golden hair kneels at his feet. Behind them, an elderly man in red lifts a cross-end and other mourners gather under a dim, cloudy sky with a distant town.

Look closer: A ladder leans against the cross at the upper left, a tool of the Deposition.

Artist

Scipione Pulzone (Il Gaetano)

Date

1593

Medium

Oil on canvas

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2244 × 3722 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Anonymous Gift, in memory of Terence Cardinal Cooke, 1984