(Dumenza circa 1481–1532 Milan)
The Crucifixion,
oil on panel, 91 x 73.2 cm, framed

Bears date and monogram on the reverse: 1519/B. L. F

Provenance:
possibly Collection of Vitaliano Crivelli (1806–1873) and Agostino Comerio (1784–1834), Milan;
Collection of Jacob Friedrich de Clerck (1769–1834), Vienna, circa 1810;
Collection of Baron Johann Baptist Puthon (1773–1839), Vienna;
Eduard Hirschler collection, Vienna;
sale, E. Hirschler & Comp., Vienna, 2 April 1906, lot 66 (as Bernardino Luini);
Collection of Marcel Fleischmann (1891–1984), Zurich;
sale, Christie’s, London, 28 March 1969, lot 65 (as Circle of Luini);
Private European collection

Exhibited:
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Il Cinquecento lombardo: da Leonardo a Caravaggio,
4 October 2000 – 25 February 2001, no. III. 49 (as Bernardino Luini, with measurements 95 x 75 cm)

Literature:
T. von Frimmel, Geschichte der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen. Einleitung und Geschichte der Kaiserlichen Gemäldegalerie, vol. 1,1, Leipzig 1899, p. 56 (as early Bernardo Luini);
T. von Frimmel, Geschichte der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen. Abschlussbände mit übersichtlichen Zusammenstellungen. Buchstabe A bis F, vol. 1, Munich 1913, p. 258 (as Luini);
T. von Frimmel, Geschichte der Wiener Gemäldesammlungen. Abschlussbände mit übersichtlichen Zusammenstellungen. Buchstabe G bis L, vol. 2, Munich 1914, p. 167 (as Bernardo Luini);
W. Angelelli, A. G. De Marchi, Pittura dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento nelle fotografie di Girolamo Bombelli, Milan 1991, p. 188 (as Bernardino Luini, with incorrect provenance);
G. Calegari, in: F. Caroli (ed.), Il Cinquecento lombardo: da Leonardo a Caravaggio, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2000, pp. 168–169, cat. no. III.49 (as Bernardino Luini, previously unpublished);
Tatiana Kustodieva, Susanna Zatti (eds.), Leonardeschi. Da Foppa a Giampietrino: dipinti dall’Ermitage di San Pietroburgo e dai Musei Civici di Pavia, Milan 2011, p. 60, mentioned under cat. no. I.15 (as ‘un’altra composizione simile’);
C. Quattrini, Bernardino Luini: catalogo generale delle opere, Turin 2019, pp. 328–330, mentioned under cat. no. 121 (as a copy and ‘terza versione’)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 79686 (as Bernardino Luini).

Mauro Lucco considers the present painting to be a fully autograph work by Bernardino Luini and he intends to include it in a forthcoming publication.

The present painting relates to the Crucifixion (90 x 73.5) given to Bernardino Luini in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (inv. no. ГЭ-2591899, p. ) which is almost the same size. The painting in the Hermitage was also originally on panel, but it was transferred to canvas in 1887. Another version is documented, now lost, previously in the Benigno Crespi collection and sold in 1914 (see G. Calegari, in literature; A. Venturi, La Galleria Crespi di Milano. Note e raffronti di Adolfo Venturi, Milan 1900, pp. 245–247, figs. 46, 47). Cristina Quattrini included this work under ‘copie’ (see literature).

Lucco dates the present painting towards the end of the second decade of the sixteenth century. Luini was to revisit the figure of the Crucifixion in fresco for the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Lugano, executed a decade later, between 1528 and 1530 (see R. Charles, Bernardino Luini: Milan, in: The Burlington Magazine, vol. 156, no. 1338, September 2014, pp. 626–627).

This painting on panel represents Christ Crucified between Saint Paul and the Virgin, and Saint John and Saint Francis, with Saint Mary Magdalen embracing the Cross just below Christ’s feet. The extensive landscape that opens out beyond the sacred scene is animated by horsemen and people who appear to be going about their daily chores. Beyond the rolling hills in the middle-ground a city characterised by classical buildings silhouetted against the blue sky with distant mountains beyond. The references to work of Leonardo, especially in the landscape, are also evident of Lombard realism which is also apparent in the works of Bramantino and Zanale.

Bernardino Luini was born at Dumenza, Lake Como, in the early 1480s; his reputation was established in Milan and its environs, toward the end of the first decade of the sixteenth century, when he worked for various important religious patrons, such as for the church of Santa Maria della Passione and the Abbey of Chiaravalle. A fresco painter in the finest Lombard tradition, he also worked extensively as a painter on panel, achieving the same masterful results. Luini successfully managed to achieve a fusion of Leonardesque influences, interpreted in an intimate and domestic manner, with currents of Venetian art, and especially those from terra-ferma artists like Lorenzo Lotto and Cima da Conegliano.

Provenance:

This painting may be the work documented as by Luini ‘rappresentante G. Cristo in croce ai piedi della quale havvi la B.V., S. Maria Madd. S. Gio. S. Paolo e S. Francesco’ [‘representing J. Christ on the cross at whose feet are the B.V. S. Mary Magd. S. John. S. Paul and S. Francesco’] that belonged to Vitaliano Crivelli (1806–1873) and the painter Agostino Comerio (1784–1834). The painting was recorded by Crivelli in a note before Comerio’s death in 1834 (Archivio di Stato di Milano, Fondo Crivelli-Giulini, Crivelli, Araldica, 87 fasc. 21, n. 15). Some of the painting’s provenance is recorded by a series of labels, stamps and wax seals on the back of the panel. On the lower right, near the lower supporting strut is a customs stamp which can be identified as that recording the picture’s departure from the ‘dogana Ducato di Milano’ during the reign of Ferdinand I, Austro-Hungarian Emperor and King of Lombardy and the Veneto between 1838 and 1848.

This work was in Vienna with Eduard Hirschler (1828–1891), whose oval wax seal is also on the back of the picture beneath the upper supporting strut with the inscription ‘E./Hirschler/& Comp’ and on a label the number ‘4488’. Hirschler specialised as a still-life painter of flowers at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts but from 1873 he began to deal in art, opening a gallery called ‘E. Hirschler & Comp; this was continued by his sons Rudolf and Paul. The work was sold at auction at E. Hirschler & Co. on 2 April 1906, lot 66 (the illustration of the painting in the sale catalogue shows the painting without the skull, which was presumably covered by overpaint). The catalogue records the provenance as: ‘Clerk, Baron Pouthon’. There are two wax seals on the reverse, one is surmounted by a Baronial coronet, and the other with the interlocking letters – ‘J.P.B.’ – in the form of a monogram which refer to this collector. A typed label on the upper left documents the painting in the collection of Marcel Fleischmann.

Technical analysis by Gianluca Poldi:

The work is painted on a panel with an average thickness of less than 1 cm, gouged vertically following the orientation of the wood fibres. The reverse side is in an excellent state of conservation, with almost no evidence of woodworm, and contains wax seals. Some inscriptions on the back have been highlighted by multispectral analysis, and in particular UV fluorescence (UVF) images have made it possible to read the date '1519' better, that precedes the initials 'B.L.F', both of which were painted with a brush in the same metal-gallic ink.

Regarding the painted surface, as can be seen in the X-ray, the areas with the largest cracks are those furthest from the main axis, where the rings are wider and more porous, and the periodic mechanical oscillations of the wood are therefore greater. Similar cracks can be seen in various works by Bramantino in the early 16th century.

Despite the accurate IR analysis, carried out in two high-resolution spectral bands, there is no particular evidence of an underdrawing, although there must have been one, presumably executed with a medium that is largely transparent to IR radiation, such as red chalk or metal-gall ink. In some details, however, especially in the broad band (1000-1700 nm), some thin, poorly contrasted lines can be seen, which can be referred to underdrawing: along the legs of Christ, at the ends of the horizontal axis of the cross, along the profile of Magdalene's cheek and in her left hand, in the face of the Virgin.

It is important to emphasise that underneath certain works by Bernardino Luini, analysed using the same methodologies, in several cases only very limited signs of drawing were found. The little or no evidence of the underlying drawing in IRR is also typical of certain Leonardesque painters, indicating a sharing of working methods. On the other hand, there are no signs of carry-over that could refer to processes of copying or transferring the subject from another source. The absence of such signs is consistent with known Luinesque practices.

The small figures animating the landscape appear to be painted “alla prima”. The X-ray, although contrasted, shows very little of the painting, the unevenness of X-ray absorption by the panel prevailing, while in IR one notices minimal adjustments: in the outline of Christ, at the ends of the crossbeam of the cross, probably in the profile of Magdalene's face towards the cross, perhaps in some drapery.