Lamentation

Circle of Jacopo Tintoretto

National Gallery of Art

A nearly nude man, Jesus, lies across the lap of one woman as four more people bow and crouch to be close to him in this square painting. The people all have pale skin with a yellow cast. Five of the six people have blond hair and halos. The woman, Mary, sits at the foot of a vertical wooden beam. She wears a gold-colored veil over her head and shoulders. A gold-trimmed, midnight-blue mantle drapes over her head and over her raspberry-pink dress. She braces Jesus’s nearly nude, muscular body with one hand under his upper back to the left and his knees to the right. Jesus’s eyes are closed, and his limbs hang limp. He has a blond beard and hair, and a white cloth is wrapped around his hips. Red streaks mark the back of his hands and the foot we can see, and a gash is over his right ribs. To the left, a clean-shaven man supports Jesus’s torso with hands hooked under the dead man’s armpits. Two more women bend over Jesus’s body to our right of Mary. They also wear midnight blue and pink, and both hold their hands by their faces. The only person without a halo is to the right, near the edge of the canvas. He has a long white beard and wears a pink turban and robe under a dark cloak. He crosses both hands over his chest as he leans forward toward Jesus. A dark tan-brown streak crosses the muted blue sky above. A few buildings are silhouetted against peach-toned light along the horizon, which comes about halfway up this composition. The ground beneath the group is earth brown.