The Lamentation of Christ

Attributed to Aurelio Luini by Mario di Giampaolo at the time of its reappearance in 2002, this sheet, with its high level of finish and its rich blend of ink and wash with white heightening, is unrelated to any known picture by Luini. He painted a Lamentation around 1575-1580 for the church of San Paolo e Barnaba in Milan, where it is still today (G. Agosti and J. Stoppa, Bernardino Luini e i suoi figli, exhib. cat, Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2014, no. 85, ill.). A working study for the painting, also on prepared paper and close in composition to the present drawing, is in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice (inv. 548; see U. Ruggeri, Disegni lombardi, exhib. cat., Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia, 1982, no. 66, ill.); it repeats most of the figures with only slight variations. A further drawing of the same subject is at Windsor (inv. RCIN 905074; see A.E. Popham and J. Wilde, The Italian Drawings of the XV and XVI Centuries in the Collection of His Majesty The King at Windsor Castle, London, 1949, no. 409, ill.). Unlike the Venice and the Windsor studies, the present sheet places the figures at a distance from the three crosses, visible in the dark background, but not shown in the Milan painting.