The altar, a precious object of private devotion, has a triptych shape, with the side doors that can be closed and painted on both sides. In the central compartment there is a scene of Lamentation, with the characters arranged in a fan: standing, cloaked in red, the Magdalene, followed by Giovanni, bending down to support Mary, now unconscious; finally, the body of Jesus, harmonious though lifeless, whose serpentine shape is recurrent in the numerous Pietàs painted by Annibale Carracci. The pathos is intense: Maria is not sitting, as usual, but lying cheek to cheek next to her son. The little angels, sad and inconsolable, express to the faithful all the suffering of the scene: one of them points to the crown of thorns, to solicit meditation on the Passion of Jesus. In the internal lateral compartments, there is Santa Cecilia (on the left, with the inscription ANGELO .AMATORE (?) BEATISSIMA VIRGO), St. Ermenegildo (on the right, accompanied by the phrase REX REGEM REGUM COLUIT); below, scenes of their martyrdom. On the external faces, however, St. Michael the Archangel and the guardian angel, respectively surmounted by Christ and God the Father. The altar was commissioned by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, who with the great decorative feats of Palazzo Farnese, first of all the Gallery, had inaugurated the fortune of the Bolognese school in Rome.
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Title:Portable tabernacle with the Pietà, scenes of saints and martyrs