Mourning of Christ (Niccolo del Arch)

The year the group was created and the identity of the customers are unknown, and it is not known how exactly the statues were originally located. According to the most reliable assumptions, the date of creation of the sculptural group is between 1463 and 1490.

This group was for a long time in the National Pinakothek of Bologna , and since the 1990s it has been returned to its original place in the Bologna church of Santa Maria della Vita, where it was first in the room of the former monastery, and then in the first chapel to the right of the altar.

The work on the traditional theme of mourning Christ consists of seven life-size figures made of terracotta with traces of polychrome. In the center is the dead Christ lying with his head on the pillow. Around her are other figures, among which stand out two Mary, Maria Kleopova and, at the feet of Christ, Mary Magdalene , grief-stricken in clothes fluttering in the wind. Other figures are more restrained, although their faces show painful involvement. Among them is the Madonna, with joined hands, Mary Joseph (mother of the Apostle James (James the Elder) and John the Evangelist ), who followed Jesus as a disciple; she squeezes her hips in a gesture of regret. Saint John is depicted in a quiet cry with a palm propping his chin. Separated from other figures on his knees in a Renaissance dress, which is usually placed on the left. This figure depicts Nicodemus and her gaze is directed at the viewer.

The drama and pathos of some of these figures are unparalleled in the Italian culture of that time, at least in the surviving works, so the question arises of the sources that inspired Niccolo del Arca. This, of course, is a sculpture of Burgundy , Gothic humanism and the dramatic novelty of Donatello's latest works.

However, it seems that the most direct source was the lost paintings of Ercole de Roberti from Ferrara, which were in the Garganelli chapel of the Cathedral of San Pietro in Bologna. From these paintings in the National Art Gallery in Bologna there is only one fragment and a copy of the wall in the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica .

The work of Niccolo del Arca, however, did not have a significant impact on the artists of that time in Bologna and its environs. Her expressive power was soon weakened by the widespread sculptural mourning of Christ made by Guido Mazzoni of Modena, as well as by Alfonso Lombardi groups. The composition of these groups was calmer and more familiar to the viewer.

Young Gabriele D'Annunzio passionately described these sculptures in one of his early poems. .

• Pierluigi De Vecchi ed Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dell'arte , volume 2, Bompiani, Milano 1999. ISBN 88-451-7212-0
• Paolo Cova, Il Compianto di Niccolò dell'Arca in Santa Maria della Vita: riflessione sulla sua funzione devozionale e sui suoi possibili riflessi formali , in Massimo Medica e Mark Gregory D'Apuzzo (a cura di), Tra la Vita e la Morte: due confraternite bolognesi tra Medioevo e Età Moderna , Silvana Editoriale, Milano, 2015, pp. 79-83

• Renaissance sculpture