Overview
Beneath the cross, the Virgin Mary holds the dead body of Jesus as mourners surround them. This scene was a well-established subject in Venetian painting by the second half of the 16th century. Typically, the primary mourners are Saint John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene. Others often depicted include Mary Cleophas and the two followers who took Jesus’s body down from the cross and bore it to the tomb, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Of the two men, the rich Joseph is typically the elder and better dressed. Accordingly, the protagonists in the Gallery’s painting might tentatively be identified as Saint John, the Virgin, Mary Magdalene (usually dressed in red, and thus more likely to be the woman in the background), Mary Cleophas (in the foreground), and Joseph of Arimathea.
The overall style and figure types in the Gallery’s picture are generically in the vein of Jacopo Tintoretto. However, the decorative approach and small scale of the Lamentation suggest the work of a Venetian madonnero, a painter who made and sold images of the Madonna for ordinary households.
The details of Tintoretto’s studio organization remain unknown. However, the profusion of derivative works that include references to studio types and figures from Tintoretto’s paintings, yet are manifestly by different hands, suggests that there may have been semi-independent painters associated with the workshop who were not subject to the workshop’s stylistic standards. On the other hand, Tintoretto may have hired assistants to work on projects on an occasional basis, and these painters may have had their own separate businesses executing works like the Lamentation that mimicked Tintoretto’s style.
Entry
The image of the dead Christ lying in the lap of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, surrounded by mourners, was a well-established subject in Venetian painting by the second half of the 16th century.
The Gallery’s picture—specifically the poses of Saint John and Mary Magdalene—dimly reflects
Adolfo Venturi identified the hand of Jacopo Tintoretto in two paintings in the Santa Caterina cycle, attributing the remaining four to Domenico and another hand, whose figures he characterized as having a puppetlike quality. The latter, he hypothesized, could be Tintoretto’s son Marco (circa 1560–1637), whom he assumed to be a member of the studio but less favored and less talented than Domenico.
The decorative approach and small scale of the Lamentation suggest the work of a Venetian madonnero, a painter who made and sold images of the Madonna for ordinary households. While the similarities to a documented Tintoretto commission (that is, the Santa Caterina cycle) suggest that the artist may have painted in the Tintoretto studio, the Lamentation is so distant from the works of Jacopo Tintoretto himself that an attribution only to the Circle of Jacopo Tintoretto is warranted. The Gallery adopted this attribution in 2018. The details of Tintoretto’s studio organization remain unknown; however, the profusion of derivative works that include references to studio types and figures from Tintoretto’s paintings, yet are manifestly by different hands, raises the possibility that there may have been semi-independent painters associated with the bottega, subject to little in the way of quality control, producing pictures that did not meet the standard of the “house style.” On the other hand, Tintoretto may have hired assistants to work on an occasional basis on projects such as the Santa Caterina cycle, and these painters may have had their own separate businesses executing works like the Lamentation that aped Tintoretto’s style. Pictures associated with Tintoretto that seem to be related to the Lamentation, with similar figure types but of marginally higher quality, include a Descent from the Cross, Christ among the Doctors, and Miraculous Draught of Fishes, all recently on the art market.
The relationship to the Santa Caterina cycle, which is not documented but datable to the 1580s, provides an approximate dating for the Lamentation.
Robert Echols
March 21, 2019
Provenance
(Benedict & Co., Berlin);[1] probably from whom acquired by William R. Timken [1866-1949], New York, by 1928;[2] by inheritance to his widow, Lillian Guyer Timken [1881-1959], New York; bequest 1960 to NGA.
Exhibition History
- 1928
- Loan Exhibition of Paintings From Memling, Holbein and Titian to Renoir and Picasso, Reinhardt Galleries, New York, 1928, no. 7.
- 1929
- Masterpieces of the Venetian School, Van Diemen Galleries, New York, 1929, no. 10.
- 1967
- The Art of Venice: An Exhibition of Five Works of Venetian Masters on extended loan from The Lending Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Tampa Bay Art Center, University of Tampa, Florida, 1967-1969, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
- 1969
- Loan to display with permanent collection, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1969-1970.
- 1993
- Loan to display with permanent collection, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, 1993-1996.
Technical Summary
The original support is a fine, plain-weave canvas. It has been lined and enlarged. The thinly applied ground on the original canvas is off-white. Infrared reflectography at 1.5 to 1.8 microns reveals that underdrawing was initially laid out in broad strokes of black paint and stiff strokes of white paint.
At some point after the painting was completed it was enlarged from its original size of approximately 61 × 61 centimeters (24 × 24 inches). X-radiography reveals that cusping is present along all four edges of the original canvas. The left and right tacking margins were opened up and incorporated into the composition, and slightly coarser fabric additions were attached to the top and bottom edges. These additions to the paint surface were coated with lead white paint, which extends over a portion of the original paint layers, and overpainted. The paint surface is abraded and the overpainting around the edges has discolored. Small areas of retouching in the figures are also evident. The thick natural resin varnish has yellowed.
Robert Echols and Joanna Dunn based on the examination report by Ann Hoenigswald
March 21, 2019
Bibliography
- 1901
- Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell’arte italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 9, part 4(1929):678, fig. 483.
- 1965
- Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 129, as Pietà.
- 1968
- National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 116, repro., as Pietà.
- 1975
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 344, repro., as Pietà.
- 1979
- Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:475-476; 2:pl. 340, as Pietà.
- 1985
- European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 394, repro., as Pietà.
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