North Italian, Lombardy, first quarter 16th century

The use of life-size or near life-size, independent sculptures to represent the Lamentation was extremely popular in Italy from the mid-15th century onward. The best known examples are the terracotta groups of mourners gathered around the dead Christ by Guido Mazzoni in Bologna, Modena, and Naples which illustrate the intense pathos of the moment. The present three figures belonged to a similar Lamentation group and represent Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea, and a third attendant, probably Nicodemus.

A sense of realism was essential in these groups in order to engage the congregation. While the present figures do not display the anguish seen in Mazzoni's groups, the attention to detail such as the individualized faces, the wrinkles in the left-hand figure's face and the realistic interpretation of the clothing and its movement provide authenticity to the scene.

Other polychromed wood Lamentations from the Lombard region, such as the one in the Pinacoteca in Varallo by Giovanni Pietro and Giovanni Ambrogio De Donati and another in the Church of Santa Marta in Bellano by Giovanni Angelo and Tiburzio del Maino illustrated by Venturoli (op.cit., pls. 37 and 62) demonstrate the strength of the tradition in the north. It is interesting to note the similarity, both in facial type and drapery style, between the present figures and those of Saints Giacomo and Christopher, by Andrea Retondi da Saronno in the church of Craveggia north of Milan (see Venturoli, op.cit., figs. 51 and 52). The delicate, flattened and parallel folds of the drapery and the elongated  faces with relatively high foreheads provide a possible link for these three sculptures to the northern borders of Italy and Switzerland.

RELATED LITERATURE
S. Pettenati and G. Romano, Il tesoro della città. Opere d'arte e oggetti preziosi da Palazzo Madama, exh. cat. Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, Turin, 1996, pp. 26-27, no. 41, pl. XI
P. Venturoli, Studi sulla scultura lignea Lombarda tra Quattro e Cinquecento, Turin, 2005, figs. 37-40, 47, 52 and 62