Lamentation

1591 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

religious

Il Ges, the church of the Jesuits, was the largest church to have been built in 1568 in Rome since the sack of the city in 1527. The interior of the church is an open, single vessel barrel-vaulted space with truncated transepts, and a single wide apse. Side chapels line the nave and although there are connecting passages between them, they function as distinct spaces.

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About the Artist

Scipione Pulzone

1544 – 1598

Italian painter. He is thought to have been a pupil of Jacopino del Conte in Rome. His talent was already evident in his early portraits, such as Cardinal Ricci (1569; Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum) and Cardinal Santorio (or Cardinal Granvella, 1576; London, Courtauld Institute Galleries). He was influenced by Italian court portraiture, particularly that of Raphael, and also by Flemish stylistic traits, which he must have absorbed through seeing the works (untraced) left in Rome by Antonis Mor. His brilliant palette was further enriched through contact with Venetian painting. The naturalism of the early portraits sets them apart from Mannerist portraiture; the careful rendering of details of physiognomy and dress was as important to Pulzone as expressing the personality of his sitter.

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