(Milan 1480/85–1553)
Christ Carrying the Cross,
oil on panel, 63.5 x 50 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

Literature:
C. Geddo, Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, il Giampietrino. L’opera completa (forthcoming publication)

We are grateful to Cristina Geddo for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination in the original and for her help in cataloguing this lot. She intends to publish this work in her forthcoming monograph on the artist.

This previously unpublished Christ Carrying the Cross is an important addition to the artist’s oeuvre. Stylistic and technical analyses fully confirm the work’s authorship as by Leonardo’s Milanese apprentice, Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, called il Giampietrino.

The present Christ Carrying the Cross reveals all the features of Giampietrino’s refined painting technique: the layered veils of his Leonardesque sfumato; the ton sur ton highlighting that subtly enlivens the light in the subject’s grey eyes and the curls of the hair; even the traces of the artist’s marking in the fresh paint. Indeed, the close inspection of the paint surface reveals several instances where traces of the artist’s technique of working paint with his hands are visible in the browns of the beard and hair, where the pigments were mixed and applied before being elaborated with a brush; likewise, in the flesh-tone areas in shade, such as the hollows of the cheeks, the flank and the arm. Giampietrino adopted and adapted this technique from his master Leonardo, transforming it into a personal style of finger painting using his barehand that can be identified in many of his works (see C. Geddo, La Madonna di Castel Vitoni del Giampietrino, in: Achademia Leonardi Vinci, VII, 1994, p. 59, note 15).

Giampietrino developed the theme of Christ Carrying the Cross in a substantial group of half-figure paintings made for private devotion, thanks to which he gained renown as a specialist in the iconography which had been previously treated by Andrea Solario (1460–1524). In contrast to Solario’s realistic example, Giampietrino applied more faithfully Leonardesque solutions to his compostion that are sweeter, but somber and better fitted to the era’s devotional needs. This explains the exceptional success of his inventions, which is evidenced by the great many replicas and variants from his prolific studio.

The painting under discussion documents one of the two most successful compositional solutions elaborated on this theme by Giampietrino over the course of his long career. The first is datable to Giampietrino´s early period of circa 1515–1520. The composition is based on the ritratto di spalla [shoulder portrait] of Leonardo’s celebrated study of Christ on paper, conserved in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice (circa 1490), combined with various ideas from Solario. The success of this image is attested by the existence of at least five autograph versions, the prototype of which is Christ Carrying the Cross of in the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest (see fig. 1).

The existence of a second composition by Giampietrino, datable to a more advanced stage in his career, was only known in six versions referable to the master’s studio. Geddo considers the present Christ Carrying the Cross as undoubtedly the lost autograph original that served as the model for the other known versions, thereby resolving the issue of their source. The present painting is therefore a significant rediscovery.

The present composition also advances an interpretation of the subject in a rigorously Leonardesque tone, but it is more mature and psychologically nuanced than the earlier Budapest composition. However, its greater realism and more accentuated pathos signal the reception of other cultural influences. Christ is represented in a more open and natural contraposto when compared to the Budapest di spalla version. The present painting, with amendments, utilizes the pose of Leonardo’s Leda. The contrast between Christ’s head turned towards the left, and the torso turned in the opposite direction, crossed by the arm, suggests movement. Christ is bent under the weight of the wood and physically embraces the cross, in a clearly symbolic gesture. The play of straining muscle, and especially of the chest, back and biceps, is described with an anatomical precision suitable for a pupil of Leonardo. The hands, in full view and alive with raised veins, add an unusually expressive note of realism. Other realistically described elements increase the truthfulness and pathos of the scene, such as the small, pearl-like tear in the left eye, the marks of the flagellation, and the frayed knotted cord at the neck which cast a shadow.

The most moving passage of this composition is Christ’s grieving gaze, turned away to the side, and lost in a void; in this there is a similarity to Giampietrino’s suicidal heroines, and especially the Cleopatra in the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. RF 2282), as well as with Solario’s drawing of Christ Carrying the Cross in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 18817). Despite these borrowings, Giampietrino’s Christ is more closely comparable to those of Sodoma, which shares both the aesthetic and sensual components suitable to a pupil of Leonardo. The present painting is executed with particular care and formal control in the outlines. The motif of a corner of drapery hanging over the forearm, enriching the play of folds, previously tested in the artist’s early work, is again later used again in the Magdalene of the Milanese Museo Bagatti Valsecchi altarpiece.

On the basis of these observations the Christ Carrying the Cross can be assigned to the third and final period of Giampietrino’s career which is, however, based only on a few secure dates (see: C. Geddo, Le pale d’altare di Giampietrino: ipotesi per un percorso stilistico, in: Arte Lombarda, 101, 1992/2, pp. 67–82; J. Shell/G. Sironi, Some documents for Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli: il Giampietrino?, in: Raccolta Vinciana, XXV, 1993, pp. 121–146). Stylistically the present work can be compared to the Bagatti Valsecchi altarpiece and the Nativity with two Angels in the Museo Civico di Milano, suggesting that it was executed around 1530–1535, and perhaps closer to the later date. The present is the only known autograph version of this composition of Christ Carrying the Cross by Giampietrino.

Technical analysis by Gianluca Poldi:

IR reflectography shows some lines of underdrawing along the edges of the figure. The subject must have been carefully studied and was presumably transferred with a cartoon or a similar method, although no trace of pouncing or incision was found (see fig. 2). The painting shows the typical characteristics of Giampietrino’s painting technique: an outline underdrawing, usually recovered by IRR but not always, the white ground, a careful sfumato for the shading and the use of a peculiar type of red lake, i.e. madder. This pigment, rarely found before 1500, slowly becomes more diffused from the beginning of 16th century, as a valid alternative to carmine-type lake (kermes, cochineal).

In the present painting, madder lake was detected by means of Reflectance Spectroscopy in the flesh tones, added to a mixture of lead white, vermillion, carbon black and a small amount of ochre. A few blue particles of azurite, or green (green earth?) can also be found, as shown by optical microscopy. This red lake is also to be found in the Fornari Altarpiece, already in San Marino in Pavia, the artist’s only dated work (21 December 1521), and an almost exclusive chronological reference point in his catalogue: he used it there, mixed with blue pigments, to obtain the peculiar purple hues.

To represent the flesh tones, such as in this painting, while normally a mixture of lead white, vermillion and ochre was preferred. Carbon black and brown earth were used to shade the body, and primarily black to shade the red mantle, created with vermillion and lead white in the highlights. This simplified approach to the chiaroscuro technique similar to Flemish tradition of oil painting, adding increasing amounts of black in the upper layer instead of preferring the overlap of glazes of coloured pigments (such as brown ones in the flesh tones), was typical of Leonardo’s influence but also partially rooted in Milanese tradition since Vincenzo Foppa.

Following traditional practices particles of the brilliant vermillion were added to the brown earth in the browns of the hair and cross, to enhance their hue. Giampietrino’s characteristic brushstrokes can also be seen in the cloak: parallel strokes in its mid-tones, alternating from a lighter red to a darker one.