Lamentation

Grief pours out of this painting by Sandro Botticelli, the Florentine artist most people know for the sunny beauty of "The Birth of Venus." Around 1490 he turned to something far darker, showing the moment right after Christ was taken down from the cross. His pale body lies across the laps of the mourners, held close by Mary Magdalene, who cradles his feet. The Virgin Mary has collapsed from sorrow, sinking backward into the arms of those around her. Everyone leans and curves inward, their bodies overlapping until the whole cluster reads like a single knot of pain.

The rich colors are still here, deep blues and warm reds and a splash of golden robes on the far right, but the mood could not be more different from his earlier myths. Botticelli painted this later in life, when his work grew heavier and more religious. Many link the change to Savonarola, the fierce Florentine preacher who told people to give up luxury and return to faith. That seriousness shows in the shadowy, bare background and the three saints standing guard, one of them holding tools used for the burial. This is Botticelli in a very human place, sitting with loss rather than beauty, and it lingers with you long after you walk away.