(Camerino documented 1450–1503)
Christ with Angels - Imago pietatis,
oil on panel, 37.5 x 30 cm, framed

Provenance:
Palazzo Volpi di Misurata, Rome;
art market, Rome, 1972;
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 29 January 2016, lot 605 (as Marchigian School, mid-15th Century);
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
M. Cionini Visani, Un libro sul Boccati, in: Arte Veneta, XXVII, 1973, p. 324, fig. 439 (tentatively attributed to the so-called Maestro del Patullo, who was later identified as Girolamo di Giovanni da Camerino)

We are grateful to Mauro Minardi for his help in cataloguing this lot.

Girolamo di Giovanni da Camerino was one of the most active painters in the Marches during the second half of the fifteenth century. This artist has been recognised as the so-called Maestro del Patullo, named the fresco cycle representing stories of the Passion executed in the late 1450s in the church of the Santissimo Crocifisso del Patullo in Paganico near Camerino (now detached and in the Pinacoteca Civica di Camerino). The present painting, which is powerfully expressive, shares striking similarities with this fresco cycle, and both works evidence a direct relation with the lively mid-quattrocento artistic Padua, which was significantly revitalised by the presence of Donatello.

This small painting would have been originally intended for private devotion, rendering a singular interpretation of the Imago pietatis. The figure of Christ is surrounded by four singing angels: one in the second row on the right is shown with his right hand holding Christ’s head as he leans forward, his gesture is counterbalanced by that of the angel in the front row on the left who pushes Jesus’s face back. The other two angels clasp their hands together in expression of their agonized participation in the events. The background of the scene is enclosed by a trellis covered in climbing roses. Close comparisons with other small works on panel by the artist can be made, such as the Crucifixion in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche at Urbino, and the Saint John the Evangelist in the Pinacoteca Civica di Camerino (see Girolamo di Giovanni. Il Quattrocento a Camerino. Dipinti, carpenterie lignee, oreficerie e ceramiche fra gotico e rinascimento, ed. by A. Marchi, B. Mastrocola, Camerino 2013, pp. 82-89).

The composition of this painting derives from an invention by Donatello on the theme of the Imago pietatis such as the relief in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and especially a lost composition which was evidently well received in the territories of the Veneto and the Marches, where it is known from many terracotta and stucco replicas, such as that in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Faenza. As evidenced by the present painting, Girolamo di Giovanni da Camerino was able to translate the example of Donatello into an entirely personal composition, characterised by the tight rhythmic interconnection of the figures and the dramatic performance of the angels. Further evidence of influence from Padua is displayed by the representation of the angels without wings, a characteristic feature of the Tuscan, Filippo Lippi’s compositions, who had also been in Padua.

Girolamo di Giovanni is documented in Padua in 1450, however by 1457 he had certainly returned to Camerino. The present painting belongs to this period, and is therefore close chronologically to the Patullo frescoes, as well as to certain works by Giovanni Angelo di Antonio, another protagonist of Renaissance painting at Camerino with whom Girolamo di Giovanni collaborated.