(active in central and southern Italy, 1490–1510)
The Entombment of Christ,
oil on panel, 43 x 83.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Luigi Battistelli, Florence, 7–8 June 1909, lot 19 (as Francesco Francia);
Leopoldina Gaslin collection, Milan (as Lorenzo Costa);
Private European collection

Literature:
F. Zeri, Johannes Hispanus: ancora una ‘Deposizione’, in: Paragone, II, 1950, 11, pp. 60–61, fig. 23;
M. Tanzi (ed.), Ioanes Ispanus. La Pala di Viadana. Tracce di classicismo precoce lungo la valle del Po, exhibition catalogue, Viadana, 2000, p. 54, fig. 32

Federico Zeri was the first art historian to study the work of Johannes Hispanus (F. Zeri, Me pinxit, 6. ‘Ioanes Ispanus’, Proporzioni, II, 1948, pp. 172–175). Starting out from a Lamentation of Christ (Saibene collection, Milan; Fondazione Zeri no. 23208), the only signed work by this artist, Zeri compiled a group of works testifying to various geographic influences of the artist including Tuscany, Lombardy, The Marches and the Veneto. Two of the panels that Zeri attributed to Hispanus are in Viadana (Santa Maria Assunta and San Cristoforo; Fondazione Zeri no. 57746) and Montecassiano (Palazzo Comunale; Fondazione Zeri no. 57746).

On the occasion of an exhibition devoted to the altarpiece in Viadana, Marco Tanzi expanded Hispanus’ œuvre further and also supplied more detailed information about his artistic career: after his beginnings in Tuscany, Hispanus was active in the north of Italy and finally in the Marches. In later contributions, Tanzi added further works to Hispanus’ œuvre (see M. Tanzi, Siparietti cremonesi, Prospettiva, 2004, pp. 113/114, pp. 117–161 [p. 156, n. 15]; M. Tanzi, Aggiornamenti per Filippo da Verona, Verona illustrata, XIX, 2006, pp. 97–107 [p. 106, n. 2]).

Zeri published the present Entombment of Christ as an autograph work by Hispanus in 1950 (see literature) and underlines the resemblance of the figures depicted in the Viadana altarpiece and the painting’s subtle chiaroscuro. The present painting and the above-mentioned Saibene Lamentation not only share the subject, but also a horizontal composition. The extensive landscape in the background is a characteristic feature of Hispanus’ works that suggests the influence of such Ferrarese artists as Boccaccino or Mazzolino. The figural approach also betrays an interest in perspective, which was particularly widespread in Milan, where it manifested itself in the work of Bramantino. This new interest in landscape and perspective anticipates the future work of Hispanus, so that the present panel is an important document of the artist’s development.

Technical analysis

The present work is executed with a skillful handling with thick and thin brush strokes and quick touches of paint visible on some of the faces. A significant and unusual characteristic is the presence of a blue underlayer (azurite, used as a local priming) that can be seen in some figures under a microscope.

In a few areas a thin linear underdrawing can be found by IR reflectography (1-1.7 microns), but it appears that the majority of the drawing was made with a metal-gall ink or with another ink transparent to IR radiation. Changes in the composition can be detected in the position of Christ’s head, as well as in the head of the man behind him, which appears to have been turned. On the basis of IRR image it is possible that another figure stood behind this man, close to the Virgin Mary, who was then not painted and substituted with the rock. Other small changes include the enlargement of the friar’s head.

Pigments, as detected by non invasive reflectance spectrometry analysis (vis-RS) performed on almost fifty points, include the alternate use of lapis lazuli, in the brighter blues of the sky and the mountains, and of the less expensive azurite in the less bright blue of the far trees. The distribution of these two blue mineral pigments is confirmed by colour IR imaging. Azurite was also used, mixed with a coccid-based red lake (carmine type), for the violet hues of some clothes. The same type of red lake is used in pink-red clothes, for some glazing and shadows of the brilliant red of vermillion and in Saint Stephen’s dalmatic. The greens are obtained using verdigris (copper acetate) lightened with lead based yellow.


Additional image:
Infrared reflectograph