Mantegna's wonderful painting was in our family bible. When I was young I used to look at it and marvel; I still do. It wasn't the only painting of its time to take this perspective, but it is the most masterful. The colour reproduction is particularly important in this painting; to my mind the more stone- coloured, marble-coloured, Christ's body the more effective. The monumentalism of the image holds you, not just for spectacle sake, but ties you that bit longer to the experience of lamentation along with the two grieving women.
To my mind the overwhelming impression is the dignity it conveys, in Christ's expression, His bearing, the setting of the scene, the calm that emanates from the body.
Dignity
on Mantegna’s ‘The Lamentation over the Dead Christ'’
the holes left by nails
the ripped flesh
later inspected by fingers
serene
those sins impounded
beneath closed eyelids
and monumental perspective
marble-like folds in the cloth
rippled upward in musculature
a transfiguration David to pietà
the falling tears
as rain might stir a seedling
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