Lamentation over the Dead Christ

Fig. 1.Contemporary artists and Brera. Exhibition "Trial to Brera Pinacoteque".
Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Mantegna and Guttuso's graphic version, 1976.

brera allestimento.jpg
Fig. 2. Lamentation over the Dead Christ, Vittorio Gregotti's Design for the Sala II, Brera, Milan, 1983.

The splendid coated version of the Dead Christ acquired by the heirs of Giuseppe Bossi for the Brera Pinacoteque in 1824 for 3000 Lire is still today the result of the restoration by Giuseppe Molteni in 1858, the same artist who restored the Madonna and Child by Raphael always in Brera.

The conservation of the painting is considered good, even if there is a general consumption due to the delicacy of the painting technique and to a series of point-like drops of color, especially on Christ's chest, revealed by infrared photographyrecently performed (Zeri, 1990).

After 1898, under the new Brera's director Corrado Ricci, the Dead Christ could be admired together with works by Giovanni Cellini and Carlo Crivelli, catalogued by the training school of the painters. In 1908, Ettore Modigliani will become the new director of the museum and change the position of all the paintings.

In 1976 the exhibition "Trial to Brera Pinacoteque" organized by Francesco Russoli included the Dead Christ, which was put side by side to a graphic copy by the painter Renato Guttuso (fig. 1), in a section where modern painters were asked to create something inspired to masterpieces of the Museum.

After 1983 the Brera museum started a remodeling project thanks to the director Franco Russoli.

The architect Vittorio Gregotti designed an incredibly suggestive system of open doors in order to create a huge anticipation for the canvas and finally a unique space for the Dead Christ (fig. 2).

Right now the painting is conserved into a particular techa built for it. It is a retractable showcase that the Central Institute for Restoration and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure suggested for delicate kind of paintings like the Dead Christ. The techa developed by Brera Pinacoteque’s laboratory completely encloses the paint, allowing the object of art to be displayed with its original frame. The reduced thickness of the theca is hidden partially by the frame, giving the viewer the feeling of watching a picture not enclosed.

Central Institute for Restoration and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure.
The Lamentation over the Dead Christ's showcase

The original frame is fixed to the structure of the device case with removable adhesives, not-aggressive resins and neutral silicon. Brera Pinacoteque utilizes this kind of techa in order to allow inspections of the backside of the paint, without having to open the whole showcase thanks to a retractable glass case. The back of the theca is in glass and the fixing of the same display case to the wall allows its rotation around one of the vertical sides by a hinge.

history of italian renaissance art || the life of an object of art || silvia minguzzi || spring 2012