• Author: Santi di Tito
• Date: c. 1592
• Collection: PAINTING
• Technique: Oil on wood panel
• Dimensions: 224,4 x 193,5 cm (with frame)
• Inventory: Inv. 1890 n. 4637

The altarpiece depicts the mourning of the Virgin over the body of Christ, just deposed from the cross, in the presence of Saints John the Baptist and Catherine and the patron, Ernando Sastri of Spain, who can be recognised by the coat of arms at his side and the armour with the cross of the Knights of Saint Stephen on the breastplate. Ernando, a Spaniard raised in Florence at the court of Cosimo I, had become a knight in 1576. Later appointed governor of the Fortezza da Basso, he commissioned the painting for the Chapel of Saint John the Baptist of the Fortezza, featuring its namesake figure rather than the usual depiction of Saint John the Evangelist. The author, Santi di Tito, was one of the leading interpreters of the painting in the Counter-Reformation period, which favoured simplified compositions, in which the representation of pain was not exaggerated, but intimate and contemplative. These features are found in this Lamentation, where the characters display a contemplative attitude to the sacred event and the inner tragedy of Mary, who expresses her resignation only by the gesture of her suspended hand.

The body of Christ, presented in the foreground for the adoration of the faithful, was placed immediately above the altar table, thereby visibly embodying the sacrifice of the Eucharist, a dogma contested by the Protestants and strongly reaffirmed by the Counter-Reformation.

The stylistic elements of the painting suggest it originates from the early 1690s.