Giovanni Angelo del Maino, Nicodemus, linden wood with traces of polychrome, circa 1520-1530 (inv. n. Sculture lignee 267)

The sculpture was, together with the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, St. John and Joseph of Arimathea, was part of a Lamentation that was dismembered and dispersed among various private collections. Only the doleful figure of Nicodemus, purchased by the City of Milan in 1994, is part of a public collection. Intended to convey to the viewer the pain at the death of Christ, the lamenting figures are highly expressive. In this work, which was initially polychrome, the sculptor’s skill becomes apparent from the quality of the detail. The torso is subjected to a dramatic torsion, veins appear realistically on the face and his half open mouth is fixed in an expression of great suffering and bewilderment.