The painting was originally the Cimasa, the upper section of the renowned altarpiece painted by Giovanni Bellini around 1475 for the high altar of the Church of San Francesco in Pesaro. The altarpiece, now housed in the Musei Civici of Pesaro, depicts the Coronation of the Virgin within a complex arrangement of panels. In the painting, the figures of Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea gather around the body of Christ, conveying deep emotional involvement. The composition, solemn and melancholic, is characterized by a perspective that suggests an upward viewpoint. Between 1792 and 1815, Napoleon’s military campaigns in Europe and Africa led to the large-scale displacement of artworks, with Italy among the most heavily looted nations. Following Napoleon’s fall in 1815, efforts began to recover the stolen masterpieces. Pope Pius VII entrusted this mission to Antonio Canova, who had served as the inspector general of antiquities and fine arts for the Papal States since 1802. Upon arriving in Paris, Canova compiled a detailed inventory of the artworks to bring back to Rome and the Vatican City State. On October 25, 1815, a convoy of 41 carts, drawn by 200 horses and carrying 249 artworks, left Paris for Italy. Among the recovered masterpieces were the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoön, and the Transfiguration by Raphael, now housed in the Vatican Museums. Thanks to Canova’s efforts, the Lament over the Dead Christ by Giovanni Bellini returned to the Vatican City State entering the Pinacoteca in 1816.

The panel has been restored at least three times. The first, most likely in the nineteenth century, subjected the work to a highly aggressive cleaning process that compromised its state of conservation.

The proposed intervention aims to clean the surface of the painting from the protective varnishes, which are now very yellowed, and from the old retouches and elements that alter the original pictorial structure. The intervention will also involve the removal of the glazes and retouches applied during the last restoration to match the abrasion of the pictorial fabric while respecting its historical nature and restoring the correct continuity of the chromatic reading of the pictorial layers. The restoration procedures will include: removal of yellowed colors; fill the gaps with plaster and glue; color reintegration through glazing and the application of any more opaque touch-ups; intermediate varnishing during cleaning; final varnishing at the end of the restoration