Lamentation over the Dead Christ

The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, finished around 1490-1492. It is housed in the Alte Pinakothek, in Munich. The portrait shows the inert body of Christ surrounded by the Virgin, St. Peter and Mary Magdalene, St. John the Evangelist, St. Jerome and St. Paul. The pathetic expressions of the characters were a novelty in Botticelli's art: under the spiritual influence of Savonarola's preachings in Florence, which began around the time the work was executed, he started in fact to abandon the allegoric inspiration that had made him a favourite of the Medici court in favour of more intimate and painstaking religious reflection.