The Lamentation

From the Getty Museum record

Dynamic expressions of grief dominate a group of figures who gather around Christ's dead body, which has been laid on a drapery-covered plinth underneath a spreading canopy. Trees at left indicate the outdoor setting and the scene is strongly illuminated from upper left. Remarkably, Christ's face is not visible, being completely covered by his mother's upper body as she tenderly lays in shock above it. In the foreground a seated woman holds her hands to her face, while in the background other characters congregate, from a shrouded figure at left, a skeletal one with hands clasped at center, to a woman peeking out at right. This drawing is not preparatory to any known painting or sculpture, but it might have been created as a design for a print, never engraved. The emotional intensity of the scene and its dramatically posed, distinctive figures link the drawing to a small group of sheets attributed historically to either Baccio Bandinelli (in whose favor the pendulum currently rests) or Rosso Fiorentino. The drawings date to a period between about 1515 and 1520 when the two artists worked closely together in Florence. In several sheets stylus underdrawing was used to plan the entire composition and its details, and this is visible in the clear lines over which the red chalk has skipped as it was applied. Such a technique was used by both Baccio and Rosso.