Download the PDF presentation (by Bozena Anna Kowalczyk)
Download Anchise Tempestini's opinion (in Italian)
We would like to thank Bozena Anna Kowalczyk for writing the description of this painting and for her help in identifying the painter. We have reproduced below the presentation she wrote.
The delicate half-length figure of Christ carrying the cross stands out from a black background. His intense gaze is turned toward the viewer, his eyes slightly circled in red, his small mouth half-closed, his cerulean facial features modulated with small, precise brushstrokes. The Christ’s features are finely painted in a porcelain-like manner, a tear shines on his cheek. His hair is styled in fine ringlets, as is his reddish beard. His finely ornamented, burgundy-colored robe is traversed by sharp, deep folds. His delicate hand rests on the cross. The artwork, focused on Christ's suffering on the way to Mount Calvary, exemplifies a genre of personal devotion painting that flourished in the late 15th century in Lombardy following the example of Leonardo da Vinci and was perfected and spread in the first decade of the 16th century in Venice by Giovanni Bellini.
This panel, which provenance can be traced back to the collection of a Viennese aristocrat, Hubert Ludwig d'Harnoncourt (1789-1846) in the castle of Hrotovice near Trebic (now Czech Republic), "the finest of its kind in Moravia," has been recently presented to the antiquities market as a painting “in the manner of Giovanni Bellini's". It reveals however unmistakably early 16th-century workmanship and, after some careful cleaning, a surprising fineness of painting and almost complete integrity of color.
Infrared reflectography reveals the figure of Salvador Mundi or Christ Blessing below the pictorial layer: the wavy outline of the hair is visible on the cross even with the naked eye, and Christ's hand is divided between the light-colored part painted above the hair and the fingers inscribed over the black background that also pervades the cross.
The inevitable association with Giovanni Bellini leads to a comparison of this panel with the Master's interpretations. The earliest autograph version of
Christ Carrying the Cross, according to the most recent studies, is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum painting in Boston, executed in about 1501.
[1] A tear runs down Christ's cheek, as in the present panel. Among the later versions, only two are considered fully autograph: the one from the Museum of Fine Arts in Toledo, 1503
[2] and the one from Pinacoteca dell'Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo.
[3] In these two paintings, Bellini eliminates any passionate, fifteenth-century element in favor of a pure, ascetic depiction. Neither version has so far been recognized as the painting described in 1525 by Marcantonio Michiel in Venice in the house of Taddeo Contarini ("
el quadro del Christo con la croce in spalle, insino alle spalle, fu de mano de Zuan Bellino"). This subject has been a huge success, evidenced by the 55 versions listed by Fritz Heinemann.
[4]
The present painting differs from the versions cited above by the direct gaze, the presence of the hand above the cross, and the sculptural manner of molding the folds of the intensely colored robe, against the immaculate white of Bellini's paintings.
The reference to Bellini is immediate, but other influences common to the Venetian and Bellinian milieu between the late 15th century and the beginning of the next century are visible in this painting, associating the names of Gerolamo da Santacroce, Marco Basaiti, Cima da Conegliano, and even Alvise Vivarini for the sharp crests of the robe.
This multiplicity of visual associations has always accompanied the meager catalog, still under construction, of Alessandro Oliverio, a mysterious friend of Lorenzo Lotto's who mentions him in his
Book of Miscellaneous Expenses as a "companion", lends him money in 1542 in Venice, to forgive the debt two years later.
[5] The appreciation of Oliverio's art is transmitted from the archival papers only a century later, in 1650, through the description of one of his paintings in the collection of the Vicenza patrician Gerolamo Gualdo: "a panel painted with beautiful and delicate manner whose size is about four palms, in which appears the figure of the Savior up to the chest with vivid colors".
[6] The critical assessment could refer to the painting under consideration here, although the subject is probably rather a
Salvador Mundi or
Christ Blessing, like the one first painted on this panel. In his most recent and comprehensive essay on Oliverio, Paolo Ervas attributes a panel presenting this subject to the artist, along with a
Head of Christ.[7]
Gerolamo Gualdo believes Oliverio was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, against those who "consider him to be from Vicenza, or of the Olivieri of Vicenza".
[8] The city of his birth is not clear however Gustav Ludwig equally deduces that the painter was born in Venice of Bergamo parents
[9] from some other documents found in 1903 in the State Archives of Venice. Oliverio's relations with the painters of Bergamo, Jacopo Palma il Vecchio (in 1532 Oliverio witnessed the will of the wife of one of his workshop assistants, Angelo Serafino) and with Gerolamo da Santacroce, with whom he has frequently been confused, were probably decisive in counting him among the painters of that city.
[10] In his only signed painting, the
Portrait of a Man in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, his name is proudly inscribed in full in block letters at the bottom center, "Alesander Oliverius V.[Venetus?]". This painting shows a clear influence of Palma, whom Oliverio may have frequented in Venice
[11]; but also from Gerolamo da Santacroce, although Giuseppe Fiocco made in 1916 a strong distinction between the two painters, qualifying Alessandro Oliverio as superior "for his savory coloring, for his love of picturesque cerulean landscapes”.
[12]
Around the Dublin painting, which is presumed to belong to the artist's mature phase, 1515-1520, as well as another
Portrait of a Man, from the Musée des Beaux Arts in Bordeaux, identified by Anchise Tempestini, a scholar who made important contributions to research on Oliverio
[13], a small group of works has been brought together, in which one can recognize both the same unmistakable features of physiognomy - the arched eyebrows, the elongated nose with pronounced nostrils, the small mouth - as well as elements of the landscape, particularly the clustered clouds.
[14]
In comparison, the present painting, whose attribution has been kindly confirmed by Anchise Tempestini, belongs with certainty to Oliverio's early artistic career, in which the strong impact of Giovanni Bellini can be discerned, confirming Gualdo's annotation of his pupillage in the Maestro's workshop. Belonging to the same stylistic moment and closeness to the compositional schemes of Bellini are some artworks already recognized to the artist, such as the
Madonna with Child Enthroned and Saints Lawrence and Sebastian, from the Diocesan Museum of Padua (formerly in the oratory of San Lorenzo in Bovolenta)
[15] and the
Madonna with Child and Saints John the Baptist and Peter, passed by the antiquarian market, found by the writer in a private collection.
[16]
The present panel is prototypical of several replicas. Both the panel published by Paolo Ervas, of unknown location,
[17] and the version passed at a Dorotheum auction with Mauro Lucco's attribution
[18] are considered to be by Oliverio. The reproductions do not provide certainty of authorship, but in the comparison, they confirm the superiority of this painting for its peculiar and genuine elegance.
[1] Oil and tempera on walnut panel, 52.9 x 42.3 cm; F. Heinemann, Giovanni Bellini e i Belliniani, I, Venice 1959, p. 45, no. 151 (e); G.F.C. Villa, in Giovanni Bellini, exhibition catalog edited by M. Lucco and G.C.F. Villa (Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale, September 30, 2008-January 11, 2009), Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale, 2008, pp. 306-307, no. 55 (Giovanni Bellini?); G.F.C. Villa, in Giovanni Bellini. Catalog raisonné, edited by M. Lucco. Treviso 2019, pp. 523-524, no. 152 (Giovanni Bellini, 1501).
[2] Oil on panel, 49.5 x 38.7 cm; Toledo, Ohio, Museum of Fine Arts, 1940.44; F. Heinemann, Giovanni Bellini and the Bellinians... cit., no. 151; G.F.C. Villa, in Giovanni Bellini... cit., pp. 306-307, no. 56; G.F.C. Villa, in Giovanni Bellini. Catalog raisonné... cit., pp. 533-534, no. 158.
[3] Oil on poplar panel, 48.5 x 27 cm; Rovigo, Pinacoteca dell'Accademia dei Concordi, 142; G.F.C. Villa, in Giovanni Bellini ... cit., pp. 308-309, no. 57; G.F.C. Villa, in Giovanni Bellini. Catalog raisonné ... cit., pp. 562 - 563, no. 177.
[4] F. Heinemann, Giovanni Bellini and the Bellinians, I, Venice 1959, pp. 45-47, nn. 151 (a) - (bc).
[5] P. Zampetti, Lorenzo Lotto. Libro di spese diverse, con aggiunta di lettere e d'altri documenti, Rome 1969, pp. 6-7.
[6] G. Gualdo, Garden of Cha' Gualdo, i.e. collection of Painters, Sculptors, Architects..., Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Ms. misc. CXXVII, Cl. IV; M.G. Ciardi Duprè, Alessandro Oliverio, in I pittori bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo. Cinquecento, I, Bergamo 1975, pp. 471-472.
[7] P. Ervas, Per un catalogo di Alessandro Oliverio, "Arte Veneta," 67, 2010, p. 150-151, figs. 6 and 7.
[8] G. Gualdo, Garden of Cha' Gualdo...; M.G. Ciardi Duprè, Alessandro Oliverio... cit., p. 471.
[9] G. Ludwig, Archivalische Beiträge zur Geschichte der venezianischen Malerei, a. Die Bergamasken in Venedig, "Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen," 24, 1903, pp. 81-82; Id., Archivalische Beiträge zur Geschichte der venezianischen Malerei, a. Die Bergamasken in Venedig, 26, 1905, pp. 155-156.
[10] G. Ludwig, Archivalische Beiträge... cit, 1903, p. 81; 1905, p. 155; M.G. Ciardi Duprè, Alessandro Oliverio, p. 471.
[11] P. Ervas, For a Catalog of Alessandro Oliverio... cit., p. 150, fig. 1.
[12] G. Fiocco, I pittori da Santacroce, "L'Arte," XIX, 1916, p. 196.
[13] A. Tempestini, Tre schede venete, "Itinerari," I, 1979, pp. 77-79; Id., I pittori bergamaschi del primo Cinquecento, review of the volume I pittori bergamaschi del primo Cinquecento, Bergamo 1975, "Antichità viva," 15, 1976, 5, p. 79.
[14] P. Ervas, Per un catalogo di Alessandro Oliverio... cit., pp. 149-155.
[15] P. Ervas, Per un catalogo di Alessandro Oliverio... cit., p. 149, fig. 2 on p. 151.
[16] Pandolfini, Florence, November 12, 2005, lot 495; P. Ervas, Per un catalogo di Alessandro Oliverio... cit., p. 149 and p. 154, note 10.
[17] P. Ervas, Per un catalogo di Alessandro Oliverio... cit., p. 150, fig. 5.
[18] Oil on panel, 56 x 46.6 cm; Dorotheum, Vienna, October 20, 2015, lot 208.
