Lamentation on Venus

oil on cradled panel.

A painting of the back of a Lamentation sculpture held at the V&A, this painting depicts the Virgin Mary mourning Christ overlayed on a scene of a Venusian landscape. Full of layered, overlapping interests of exploration: Victorians wondered if there were people living on Venus and whether Christ had visited them too. Venus as a symbol of a planet in runaway climate catastrophe. The roles of religious stories in our relationship with nature.