Christ crowned with Thorns,
oil on canvas, 175 x 140 cm, unframed

Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, London, 23nd July 1982, lot 34 (as Roman School, circa 1620–1625);
Private collection, Italy

Literature:
M. Pirondini/G. Manni/E. Negro, Arte emiliana: dalle raccolte storiche al nuovo collezionismo, Modena 1989, pp. 182-185 (as Aureliano Milani)

The present work has been attributed to Aureliano Milani (Bologna 1675–1749 Rome), see literature. Milani was born in Bologna and began his apprenticeship in the workshop of Lorenzo Pasinelli but after a short time abandoned it for a place under Cesare Gennari. However, unconvinced by the teachings of his masters, he consequently devoted himself to independent study of the famous paintings of the Carracci, copying the three brother’s work in the original, thanks to the patronage of Count Fava, who granted him free access to the rooms of his palace, which held a famous cycle of frescos by the Carracci. Milani became a follower of the naturalism of the consolidated tradition of painting, which in Bologna remained unsurpassed. Throughout his entire career, he made considerable efforts to revive the Carracci manner.

His activity in Emilia lasted until the second decade of the 18th century, which saw his most prestigious commissions: a number of paintings for Francesco Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza. Later, in 1719 and probably prompted by the desire to acquire greater recognition, Milani moved to Rome under the protection of Cardinal Fabrizio Paolucci from Forlì, secretary of the Papal States, for whom he decorated the chapel of the same name in San Marcello al Corso. Among his other Roman projects, the frescoes in Palazzo Doria Pamphili from the first half of the 1730s, should be mentioned.

The present work has been given to Milani’s early period, when he was still assiduously studying the Carracci models. For instance, in the henchman kneeling in the foreground and in the placing of the crown of thorns on Christ’s head, we note a direct quote from the altarpiece of the same subject by Ludovico Carracci for San Girolamo della Certosa and, in the characters in the right background, a reference to the Preaching of the Baptist, again by Ludovico, both currently conserved at the Pinacoteca di Bologna. Moreover, the figure of Christ, bent to the right in an expression of intense pain, borrows from a well-known engraving by Annibale Carracci, in what is effectively a Milani tribute to his virtual teachers. The present powerful composition shows a firm construction of forms and a skilful rendering of anatomy and body volumes, modelled in a full and vigorous manner.