The Lamentation over the Dead Christ

Taddeo Gaddi's Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1337) at Yale depicts the moment of grief following the Deposition, when Christ's body is mourned by the Virgin, Saint John, and the holy women. Taddeo was the most prominent painter in Florence following Giotto's death, and his interpretation of Passion subjects carried the emotional weight and compositional clarity he absorbed during his long apprenticeship. The Lamentation was among the most emotionally demanding subjects in the Gothic repertoire, requiring the painter to balance theological gravity with human pathos.

Executed in egg tempera with gold leaf on panel, the compact composition arranges the mourning figures in an expressive semicircle around the recumbent Christ, a format derived from Giotto's celebrated Lamentation in the Arena Chapel. The figures display Taddeo's characteristic solid modeling with restrained but effective gestures of grief, set against a sparse rocky landscape.