Mourning over the Dead Christ

Even though not described in the Gospels, the Mourning was one of the most popular subjects from the Passion of Christ, and was designed to encourage the emotional participation of the congregation.
This type of sculpture comes from the religious dramas known as Sacre Rappresentazioni. This type of theatre performance also led to the cycles in the Sacri Monti and to the carved figures who animate the scenes of mourning over the dead Christ. The groups of life-size statues (the Virgin, Mary of Clopas, Mary Salome, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus with his pincers) are gathered around the rigid body of Christ. They are dressed in contemporary costumes and are portrayed with extreme naturalism, to help the faithful feel part of the scene. The lack of precise sources and reliable comparisons makes it difficult to reconstruct the exact arrangement of the figures.