Deposition (or Lamentation)

Deposition has a powerful luminous quality, and follows a diagonal composition, indicating that the artist took into consideration the oblique angle at which it was to be viewed in its intended location. However, it is in many ways more innovative as it marks a further development in the research dedicated to the representation of the 'motions of the soul' which had begun to interest Correggio starting from the second decade of the sixteenth century and that this work served in fact as a model for seventeenth-century artists who were able to develop its pathos in a baroque direction. Curator and art historian the artist shows the powerful emotions, particularly shock and despair, conveyed through this work.  This and other works by Correggio directly influenced Italian Baroque painter Annibale Carracci.

This painting shows the moment immediately after Christ has been lowered from the cross (making Lamentation a more accurate title than Deposition). The dead body of Christ is front and center in the composition, while behind him and to the right, we see the base of the cross, and a ladder leaning against it. Descending the ladder is Nicodemus, who holds the pincers that he used to remove the nails from Christ's hands and feet in the deposition process. Christ's head rests in the lap of the grief-stricken Virgin Mary, who, in turn, is supported in her seated position by young Saint John. Mary Magdalene sits just behind Christ's legs, at the right-hand side of the image. 

This Oil on canvas is housed in the  Parma National Gallery, Parma