Virgin Mary Swooning Over the Dead Body of Christ at the Foot of the Cross

myminifactory

The sorrowful fate of Christ is a dominant motif in Christian art. At the heart of Monnot's relief, Mary and Jessusinius' hands hang limply, hers in a faint as he slips from her final touch. The limbs and hair of foreground figures protrude deeply into the viewer's space, while low-relief background figures seem to recede into the distance. Only a handful of such baroque marble high reliefs have survived outside their original churches. This one, bearing Monnot's signature and date, would have belonged to a patron influential enough to rival popes in securing the services of the French-born sculptor Monnot, a prominent artist in Rome following Bernini's passing.