(Arpino 1568–1640 Rome)
Dead Christ held by God the Father with two angels (Thronum gratiae),
oil on canvas, 66 x 50 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection

We are grateful to Professor Dr. Herwarth Röttgen for endorsing the attribution after examining the painting in the original (written communication 17. February 2013)

This hitherto unpublished painting has been recognized as a fully autograph work of Giuseppe Cesari, Il Cavalier d’Arpino, by Herwarth Röttgen who dates it to the late period of the artist´s career.
The composition must have been successful, as at least another version of it is known, in the Sgarbi-Cavallini Foundation, dated around 1630-1635 (see H. Röttgen, Il Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino. Un grande pittore nello splendore della fama e nell’incostanza della fortuna, Roma 2002, p. 470, no. 251). According to Röttgen the intense expressions and attitudes of the two graceful angels in front of the Christ’s pale dead body as well as the more elaborated details in their clothing, compared to the more codified types of the two angels’ faces in the Sgarbi-Cavallini version, indicate that the present painting is the prototype and that it should be considered the former version executed by the artist around 1622, close to the Madonna with seated Child and two Angels on the ceiling of San Chrysogonus in Rome (see Röttgen 2002, no. 195).
Cavalier d’Arpino had been the favorite artist of Pope Clement VIII, dominating the official art world in Rome in the years around 1600. His most famous works were large-scale decorations, such as the fresco decoration of the transept of Saint John in the Lateran and for the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill, but he was also requested devotional works on small scale, intended for private patrons, of which the present painting is an example.