Compianto sul Cristo morto con Giuseppe d'Arimatea, la Vergine e Maria Maddalena, con santa Marta e san Filippo Benizi

Giovanni Bellini painted the dead Christ mourned by his family more often than almost any other subject, and this altarpiece comes from the very end of his long life, around 1500 to 1510. It was made for the Venetian church of Santa Maria dei Servi, home to the Servite friars, and their order shapes the cast of figures. Christ is held up before the mourners, with the Virgin and Mary Magdalene beside him and Joseph of Arimathea supporting the body. The friar at the right is usually named as Filippo Benizi, a Servite saint, though scholars are not certain it is him rather than another holy man of the order. By this date Bellini was in his seventies and leaned on his workshop, and the hand of his pupil Rocco Marconi has been detected in parts of the paint.