Lamentazione sul Cristo deposto con San Sinibaldo Siena

Artist: Maestro dell'Osservanza
Current location: Museo di San Donato - Collezione di Banca MPS
Original location:

DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION

dimensions
101x71 cm

The table is characterized by the decidedly unusual subject and iconography that make the painting a sort of ex voto: the pale and lifeless body of Christ is lying on the knees of the Virgin who, with a painful gesture, mourns the passion and death of the Son to whose martyrdom the great cross alludes, the scourge hanging on the nail, the spear and the cane with the sponge with which the Roman soldiers gave vinegar to the dying Christ. Kneeling next to the Virgin, hands folded in prayer, is the commissioner of the work to which the two coats of arms painted at the base of the table refer, whose identification has allowed to recognize in the elderly gentleman the figure of Peter Volckammer, rich citizen of Nuremberg arrived in Siena following the emperor Sigismund and died here on 5 September 1432. Behind him is San Sinibaldo who, as patron saint of the Germanic city, holds a symbolic model of Nuremberg in his hand. Kneeling next to the Virgin, hands folded in prayer, is the commissioner of the work to which the two coats of arms painted at the base of the table refer, whose identification has allowed to recognize in the elderly gentleman the figure of Peter Volckammer, rich citizen of Nuremberg arrived in Siena following the emperor Sigismund and died here on 5 September 1432. Behind him is San Sinibaldo who, as patron saint of the Germanic city, holds a symbolic model of Nuremberg in his hand. The painting was probably executed shortly after the death of the rich personage, whose body was buried in the Sienese cathedral: the two crests of the Volckammer coat of arms are in fact devoid of the golden crown which the family had the right to bear their insignia from November of 1433.The panel was recognized by critics as one of the oldest works of the Sienese artist known as the 'Maestro dell'Osservanza'. The expression absorbed, vaguely dazed by the glances, the clear design of the profiles and the preference for a painting with enameled tones seem to prelude the solutions of Sano di Pietro whose activity, according to some scholars, the paintings belonging to the group 'Maestro dell'Osservanza 'would even constitute the oldest manifestation.