The Virgin fainting as Christ is carried to his grave

Lorenzo Lotto painted the Virgin fainting as Christ is carried to the grave in 1545, during his final, troubled years when commissions were scarce and he was increasingly marginalized by the Venetian establishment dominated by Titian. The painting at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg reflects the intensely personal devotion that characterized Lotto's late religious works. Characteristic of Lotto's approach, the work displays nervous energy, psychological intensity, symbolic still-life elements, eclectic regional influences.

The swooning Virgin and the bearers of Christ's body are rendered with Lotto's characteristic emotional directness, the palette shifting from cool shadows to warm flesh tones with an expressiveness that anticipates Baroque painting.