Lamentation
Andrea Solario·c. 1505-1507
Historical Context
Andrea Solario's Lamentation, painted around 1505-1507, depicts the mourning over Christ's body after the Crucifixion. Solario, a Milanese painter influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, brings the soft, atmospheric quality of Leonardesque painting to this emotionally charged devotional subject. The Lamentation was a key subject in Counter-Reformation devotion, designed to inspire empathy with Christ's suffering and gratitude for his sacrifice.
Technical Analysis
Solario's oil-on-panel technique demonstrates the sfumato modeling and warm atmospheric effects absorbed from Leonardo. The grief-stricken figures are rendered with soft, graduated tones that create an enveloping emotional atmosphere, while the careful composition groups the mourners around Christ's body with classical balance.
Provenance
Baron Kinnaird, Rossie Priory, Inchture, Perthshire, Scotland. Probably purchased 1935 in England by Longhi; sold that same year to (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[1] sold 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1961 to NGA. [1] According to Kress records in NGA curatorial files. [2] On 7 June 1954 the Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini Bonacossi for sixteen paintings, including the NGA painting which was listed as _Altarpiece Deposition_ by Solario. In a draft of one of the documents prepared for the Count's signature in connection with the offer, this painting is described as one "which came from my personal collection in Florence." The Count accepted the offer on 30 June 1954; the final payment for the purchase was ultimately made in early 1957, after the Count's death in 1955. (See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files and The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1211.)
