In the crypt of the Church of Santa Maria dei Laici, alsoknown as the Church ofWhites, three of the walls are frescoed with Scenes from the Passion, whichalsoincluded a statue of the dead Christ placed inside a sepulchralniche; howevertherewereprobablyothersculpturestoo. The representationwould have began on the leftwalllookingat the altar with the Last Supper and continued with the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and the Washing of Feet, while the Flagellation, twofragmentaryscenes(the Exit from Jerusalem and the Ascent to Calvary) and finally the Nailing to the Cross occupy the rightwall.
The Crucifixionwaspaintedon the altar wall, while the centrepiece of the dramatic narrative seems to be the Lamentation over the Dead Christ. Thesepaintings, which are datedaround 1470, are probably by Domenico di Cecco, the youngapprenticewhoworkedalongside Ottaviano Nelli in his last years.
Due to dampness and the poorcondition of the walls, most of the frescoeshave beendetached from the walls (1965). Theyare currently on display in the Museo Diocesano in Gubbio.
Until the conditions are appropriate for thereturn of the paintings to theiroriginal location, a solutioncombiningdigital surveys techniques and a virtual reality elaborationhasallowed for the digital reconstruction of the crypt’soriginalappearance, prepared by architect Giorgio Verdiani of the University of Florencewith the virtualrepositioning of the frescoes and the statue thatwas to be housed inside the sarcophagus-niche.