- Mary Magdalene, mid-scream
- the dead Christ
- six mourners in all
- Lombardi's death of the Virgin upstairs
01What it is
Santa Maria della Vita stands on via Clavature in the Quadrilatero. It belonged to a lay confraternity that ran a hospital, and the church you enter is a baroque rebuilding with a large dome.
02The Compianto
In a chapel to the side is the Compianto sul Cristo morto — the Lamentation over the dead Christ — by Niccolò dell'Arca, made in the second half of the fifteenth century. Seven life-size figures in terracotta surround the body.
Nothing about it is calm. Mary Magdalene rushes in from one side, her clothes flying behind her and her mouth open in a scream; the other women clutch their faces or recoil. It is one of the most emotional sculptures of the Italian Renaissance, and it is only a few steps from a busy market street.
03Upstairs
The confraternity's oratory holds another terracotta group, the death of the Virgin, by Alfonso Lombardi, and the complex includes a small museum of the history of healthcare in the city.