Focus on this artwork and discuss the Description and style.
The Lamentation is painted in chiaroscuro. The painting exhibits a graphic visual style upon wooden support. Although it looks like a monochromatic sketch, the painting displays a high degree of intention. The ground is not prepared but actually forms a layer of the painting.Compared to other Pietà compositions by Bellini, the Lamentation is more crowded. The dead Christ is at the center of the painting in a seated position. He is supported on the side by an expressive Madonna and Saint John the Baptist. On the left, Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimthea are both recognizable. Above, three figures are painted more faintly: a girl, a bald, bearded man, and Nicodemus, the elderly monk with the long beard. There is a study for the figure of Nicodemus in the Uffizi's drawing collection, the Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe.
The protruding knees of Christ, foreshortened, break the illusion of the painting's separation from its viewer.
Uffizi Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe John the Baptist Saint John the Baptist chiaroscuro Nicodemus