Lamentation Over the Dead Christ

The panel by Lelio Orsi (1508/1511–1587) portrays the deceased Christ being mourned before the tomb by the Virgin Mary, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and Saint John the Evangelist, with Mary Magdalene and a cherub in the foreground. Orsi, an intriguing painter from the Po Valley who trained under Correggio and was profoundly influenced by Giulio Romano in Mantua and Michelangelo during his stays in Rome, has a distinctive style aligned with the cultural context of the Counter-Reformation. This style blends the sculptural monumentality inspired by Michelangelo with sinuous forms, a soft color palette rooted in Veneto-Emilian traditions, and a revived focus on light, influenced by contemporary reflections on Correggio’s work.
The depiction of Christ within his mother's womb draws from Michelangelo’s design for the Pietà created for Vittoria Colonna (Romani 1984, 72). The elongated and disjointed body of Jesus, as well as the rigid positioning of the head against the left shoulder, are reminiscent of the Bandini Pietà. Additionally, the use of light, preference for fluid and dynamic lines, and the soft and harmonious color palette that reduces Michelangelo’s sculptural tensions, reflect Correggio’s style. A sheet by Lelio Orsi, housed at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York (inv. 1973.34), and recently highlighted by Vittoria Romani, contains two pen studies for the figure of Christ on the reverse (Vittoria Romani, Il Compianto su Cristo morto di Lelio Orsi, November 17, 2021, lecture from the series Messi in luce. Paintings and sculptures from Palazzo Venezia). The unique blend of stylistic elements in the Lamentation accounts for its attribution to Correggio or Marcello Venusti, a Lombard artist who worked with Buonarroti in Rome, during its esteemed history as a collector’s piece between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. In his meticulous and emotive reinterpretation of Michelangelo's style, Orsi demonstrates a level of sensitivity akin to Giulio Clovio. The panel at Palazzo Venezia shares with one of Clovio's renowned works, the Pietà on parchment in the Uffizi, its devotional character, luxurious and refined color scheme, and intricate attention to detail in the foreground. The miniaturist approach and detailed lenticular rendering are distinctive features of Orsi’s work in small and medium formats. Notable examples include the San Giorgio and the Sacrificio di Isacco (Sacrifice of Isaac) housed in the Capodimonte Museum, which date from a similar period. Another example is the later Cristo morto fra Carità e Giustizia (The dead Christ between Charity and Justice) located in the Galleria Estense in Modena. The cherubs depicted in this piece bear a close resemblance to the angel featured in the Lamentation.
The chronology of Orsi's work remains difficult to reconstruct due to limited documentary evidence. The dating of the Lamentation is still debated, though it seems to align with the paintings attributed to the mature phase of his career. Salvini and Chiodi (1950), Hoffmann (1975), Romani (1984), and more recently Patrizi (2021), suggest that the Lamentation was painted in the 1560s. During this time, Orsi had settled permanently in Emilia after several stays in Rome and revisited his Michelangelian influences through the recovery of Correggio. They believe that this work is associated with a group of small paintings created after the frescoes for the Casino di Sopra in Novellara (1558–1563) and stylistically similar to the Madonna della Ghiara, a drawing signed and dated 1569. Conversely, Frisoni (1987), followed by Pirondini (2019), posits that the Lamentation exemplifies the final phase of the artist’s career, characterized by a pronounced Correggian influence, suggesting a timeframe between the late 1570s and early 1580s. Given that the Lamentation is strikingly similar to the frescoes in the Casino di Sopra, executed by Orsi during the 1550s and 1560s, and considering the drawing of the Madonna della Ghiara (1569) as a reliable comparative reference, it is reasonable to propose a date in the latter part of the 1560s.

Maria Giovanna Donà

Entry published on 12 June 2025

Good.

The museum’s 1992 technical data sheet mentions a restoration performed a few years earlier but does not specify the date, which is likely before the 1987–1988 exhibition. On March 13, 2006, an analysis of the artwork’s conservation status was conducted, indicating a deleted “urgent intervention” followed by a second note, “to be intervened upon.”

In the center of the reverse of the panel, there is a fire-branded mark with the letters “D G H” surmounted by a crown, the monogram of the Marquis del Carpio (L. 4772), and below, the inventory number “1344”;
at the top right in brush and black ink are the intertwined letters “P R C” and the letters “N P”; in blue chalk is the number “13.”

Rome, Don Gaspar de Haro Y Guzmán, VII Marquis of Carpio (1629–1687), inventory of 1682–1683 with attribution to Marcello Venusti: “n. 682. A painting depicting Christ taken down from the Cross with many figures by Marcello Venusto, measuring approximately 3 and 2 1/2 palms in size with a gold-trimmed ebony frame estimated at 40” [approximately 66.9 x 55.8 cm, 1 palm = 22.3 cm], with a note in the margin from a later period: “Father Resta presented painting n. 682” [Burke–Cherry 1997, 763]; Naples, Don Gaspar de Haro Y Guzmán, VII Marquis of Carpio (1629–1687), post-mortem inventory of 1687 with no indication of author: “n. 1344. A painting measuring approximately 3 and 2½ palms with a black frame, gilded carvings depicting the dead Christ, the Marys, and other figures mourning him on the panel”;
Rome, Cardinal Tommaso Ruffo (1663–1753) attributed to Correggio: “A Pietà painted by Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio [...] painting measuring 2 and 3 palms, with figures and a beautiful landscape, which was sold by the heirs of the Marquis del Carpio, who paid four thousand filippi for it.” [approx. 66.9 x 44.6 cm, 1 palm = 22.3 cm] [Agnelli 1734, 44] and also indicated in the post-mortem inventory of 1753: “another [painting] of the head representing the Pietà, with many figures by Antonio di Correggio, which was bought by the Marquis del Carpio for 4000 scudi” [De Angelis 2010, 68];
Rome, Collezione del Prince Fabrizio Ruffo di Motta Bagnara (1845–1916);
Rome, Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, attributed to the school of Rubens since 1919.

Reggio Emilia, Civica Galleria Fontanesi, Mostra di Lelio Orsi, July 16–September 30, 1950;
Reggio Emilia, Teatro Municipale Romolo Valli, Lelio Orsi, December 5, 1987– January 30, 1988;
Tivoli, Villa d’Este, Ecce Homo. L’incontro fra il divino e l’umano per una diversa antropologia, October 16, 2020–May 5, 2021.

Agnelli Jacopo, Gallerie di pitture dell’E.mo e R.mo Principe Signor Cardinale Tommaso Ruffo vescovo di Palestrina, e di Ferrara […] Rime e prose del dottor Jacopo Agnelli ferrarese, Ferrara 1734, p. 44;
Santangelo Antonino (a cura di), Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo. 1. Dipinti, Roma 1947, p. 22;
Salvini Roberto, Chiodi Alberto Mario (a cura di), Mostra di Lelio Orsi, catalogo della mostra (Reggio Emilia, Civica Galleria Fontanesi, 16 luglio-30 settembre 1950), p. 40, cat. 37, fig.37;
Salvini Roberto, Su Lelio Orsi e la mostra di Reggio Emilia, in «Bollettino d’arte», XXXVI, 1, 1951, p. 82;
Villani Maria Rosa, Lelio Orsi, tesi di laurea, Università degli Studi di Bologna, relatore prof. Pallucchini Rodolfo, a.a. 1953-1954, pp. 107-111;
Zeri Federico, Lelio Orsi: un’“Annunciazione”, in «Paragone. Arte», 3.1952, p. 60;
Zeri Federico (a cura di), Catalogo del Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale. 3. I dipinti del museo di Palazzo Venezia in Roma, Roma 1955, p. 7, cat. 82;
Hoffman Joseph, Lelio Orsi da Novellara (1511-1587): A Stylistic Chronology, Ann Harbor 1975, pp. 75-77, cat.24, p. 181, fig.44;
De Grazia, in De Grazia Diane (a cura di), Correggio e il suo lascito. Disegni del Cinquecento emiliano, catalogo della mostra (Parma, Palazzo della Pilotta, 6 giugno-15 luglio 1984), Parma 1984, p. 284;
Romani Vittoria, Lelio Orsi, Modena 1984, pp. 72-73, fig. 55;
Frisoni, in Monducci Elio, Pirondini Massimo (a cura di), Lelio Orsi, catalogo della mostra (Reggio Emilia, Teatro Municipale Romolo Valli, 5 dicembre 1987-30 gennaio 1988), Milano 1987, pp. 224-225, cat. 98,  ill. pp. 225, 228-230;
Fortunati Vera (a cura di), La pittura in Emilia e in Romagna. Il Cinquecento, II, Milano 1995, p. 182 fig. p. 183;
Burke Marcus, Cherry Peter, Spanish Inventories. Collection of Paintings in Madrid 1601-1755, Los Angeles, Torino 1997, I, p. 763, doc. 109; p. 821, doc. 114;
Barberini Maria Giulia, Sconci Maria Selene (a cura di), Guida al Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Venezia, Roma 2009, p. 27, n. 10;
De Angelis Maria Antonietta, I dipinti del cardinale Tommaso Ruffo (1663-1753): la quadreria di un alto prelato nella Roma del Settecento, in Debenedetti Elisa (a cura di), Collezionisti, disegnatori e pittori dall’Arcadia al Purismo, II, Roma 2010, p. 68;
Villata Edoardo, Presenze lombarde nella collezione Ruffo, in Pavone Mario Alberto (a cura di), Il collezionismo del cardinale Tommaso Ruffo tra Ferrara e Roma, Atti del convegno (Salerno, 18 novembre 2013), Roma 2013, pp. 107-108;
Pirondini Massimo, Lelio Orsi, i Gonzaga di Novellara e Roma, in Parrilla Francesca, Pirondini Massimo (a cura di), Michelangelo a colori. Marcello Venusti, Lelio Orsi, Marco Pino, Jacopino del Conte, catalogo della mostra (Roma, Palazzo Barberini, 19 ottobre 2019-6 gennaio 2020), Roma 2019, p. 51;
Romani Vittoria, "Anche Lelio ha usato mirabilmente di queste pieghe, ma più indistintamente del Correggio". Pieghe e panni nelle riflessioni di Padre Sebastiano Resta, in «Studi di Memofonte», n. 25, 2020, p. 176;
Patrizi, in Bruciati Andrea (a cura di), Ecce Homo. L’incontro fra il divino e l’umano per una diversa antropologia, catalogo della mostra (Tivoli, Villa d’Este, 16 ottobre 2020-2 maggio 2021), Roma 2021, n. 38.