Giacomo Negretti, called Palma il Giovane

Palma Giovane treated the subject of the Pietà and other compositional variants of the theme in a number of drawings and paintings. He was a prolific draftsman in comparision to his Venetian contemporaries and executed many drawings as works in their own right rather than solely for preparatory purposes. The present example, a relatively finished composition which has been heightened with gold, seems likely to have been one such drawing. Palma's use of line has lent a quiet sentimentality to the work, the curve of Christ's body and the downward gaze of the surrounding figures all serving to heighten the melancholic mood of the subject. Other examples of Palma's approach to the same theme can be found in the British Museum, the Ashmolean, and the Louvre.¹

^1. London, British Museum, The Lamentation with St John the Baptist (inv. 1862,0809.31.); Oxford, The Ashmolean Museum, The Lamentation (inv. WA1940.1.78); Paris, Musée du Louvre, The Dead Christ supported by Angels (inv. 5188)