Dead Christ

This painting of enormous dramatic impact portrays the dead Christ laid out on the shroud and surrounded by the symbols of the Passion. The theme and the invention are part of a tradition going back to Mantegna’s famous painting, known in the sixteenth century through copies and various prints, and revived in the early seventeenth century on numerous occasions. The clearly isolated display of Christ’s dead body, without mourners and with the symbols of the Passion visible, explicitly manifests and almost dwells on the religious intent of the painting, unquestionably made for private devotion and reflecting a sensitivity typical of the Counter-Reformation.

The painting was attributed for a long time to Annibale Carracci, only recently was put forward the name of Lorenzo Garbieri, a younger artist who had trained in the workshop of Annibale’s cousin Ludovico Carracci.