Lamentation of Christ, attributed to the Master of Monesties

Important, museum-quality statues in polychrome walnut, originating from a group of the Lamentation (rather than a pure Entombment). The original polychromy is largely preserved. The holy women can be identified as the Virgin (hands joined, pointing downward) and Mary Salome (hands joined, pointing upward). The iconography is coherent: head-covering mantles, inward mourning attitudes, joined hands, and absence of individual attributes. The frontal presentation, the footing on trapezoidal bases, and the restrained gestures point to a processional scenography, intended to be read laterally around a recumbent Christ in a Lamentation. These two sculptures reprise the posture, codes, and expressions observed in the exceptional ensemble preserved at the Saint-Jacques Chapel in Monestiès (c. 1490–1491, Albi region).
This group comes from the collection of Edouard Bresset, who already attributed them to the Master of Monestiès.