The pastel is one of the final cartoons for the Crucifixion made in 1897 by Emilio Longoni in the Piatti chapel of the Velate Vecchio cemetery in Varese. Striking in the imposing Longonian fresco are the splendid figures of Mary of Nazareth, Mary of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene, represented at the foot of the cross according to the story of the Gospel of John. The three women are performed with the naturalistic tension that distinguishes the painter's contemporary orientation - at that time still devoted to social issues before the turning point of the landscape at the end of the century. If Mary mother of Jesus and Mary of Cleopas, compostly kneeling and closed in the austere dark cloaks that conceal the body, are characterized by the painful mimicry of the faces, Mary Magdalene, abandoned on the ground in the sober light dress, with the long undone golden hair , hides his face almost entirely, letting the dramatic pose speak of his torment.
Among the numerous preparatory studies for the Crucifixion stand out the three pastels for the individual Marys exhibited at the Terza Triennale di Brera in 1897, which met with great critical and public success. Longoni himself mentions the works in the concise biographical notes, underlining the personal value of his research also in the religious field and claiming an interpretative autonomy not subject to iconographic constraints of any kind: “I have a crucifixion commissioned for a mortuary chapel. They like "le Marie". However, it seems that I was unable to instill a mystical ideality in them, since the Priests do not like them. Their pain is too human. (Liturgical Art lessons given to me by a Priest, which I find right, but they do not correspond to my sentiment) ".
Among the highest achievements of the artist's production in the graphic field, the pastel for Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross differs from the transposition to fresco for the widespread use of a Divisionist filament, of previatesca matrix, which informs the ethereal background of grass and sky.