The Virgin comforted by Saint John the Evangelist and the three Marys at the tomb,
oil on panel, 35.5 x 28 cm, framed

Provenance:
Lord Scarsdale, Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire;
Godfrey Locker-Lampson (1875–1946), Rowfant, Sussex;
Dr. Jakob Hirsch (1874–1955), New York;
from whom acquired by the Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, 1941;
sale, Christie’s, New York, 13 January 1987, lot 88 (as Emilian School, circa 1530);
with Harari & Johns Ltd.;
Private collection, Switzerland

Exhibited:
Manchester, Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, no. 154 (as Raphael);
Leeds, National Exhibition of Works of Art, 1868, no. 253 (as Raphael)

Literature:
J. D. Passavant, Kunstreise durch England und Belgien, Frankfurt am Main 1833, p. 187 (as by an Associate of Raphael, possibly by Domenico Alfani);
J. D. Passavant, Rafael von Urbino und sein Vater Giovanni Santi, vol. II, Leipzig 1839, p. 481, mentioned under no. 110 (as by an Associate of Raphael, possibly by Domenico Alfani);
G. F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London 1854, vol. II, p. 91, vol. III, p. 393 (as by a painter of Raphael’s school from Bologna or Ferrara);
C. Ruland, The Works of Raphael Santi da Urbino as represented in the Raphael Collection in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, formed by H. R. H. the Prince Consort 1853–1861 and completed by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, (London), Weimar 1876, p. 39, mentioned under no. XIX, no. 6;
R. Langton Douglas, A few Italian pictures collected by Godfrey Locker-Lampson, London, n. d., p. 12, no. III, ill. (as Ercole di Giulio Cesare Grandi);
B. B. Fredericksen/F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge Massachussets 1972, pp. 172, 589 (as Follower of Raphael)
A. Bliznukov, Per Girolamo Marchesi. Dagli esordi al soggiorno bolognese, in: Proporzioni. Annali della Fondazione Roberto Longhi, 6, 2005, p. 61, fig. 104 (on Daniele Benati’s suggestion as Girolamo Marchesi);
A. Donati, Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola, San Marino 2007, p. 179, no. I.3. (as uncertain attribution);
R. Zama, Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola. Pittore, Rimini 2007, pp. 217–218, no. 15R (under ‘opere respinte’)
P. Ervas, Girolamo da Treviso, Saonara 2014, p. 93, no. 19, fig. 39 (as Girolamo da Treviso)

Engraved:
by Girolamo Forabosco (1605–1679), circa 1630–70, etching, 36.0 x 27.4 cm, Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, inv. no. RCIN 850470;
by Carlo Gregori (1719–1759), circa 1740–60, engraving with etching, 36.8 x 27.6 cm, Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, inv. no. RCIN 850469;
by C. P. Landon (1761–1826), for Vies et œuvre des peintres les plus célèbres de toutes les écoles ; Recueil Classique, Suite de la table des planches de l’œuvre de Raphael, Paris 1813, vol. 8, plate 432

Technical analysis by Gianluca Poldi:

The work is painted on a panel 1.3 cm thick. The painting technique is extremely accurate and unusual: as optical microscopy shows, the landscape is particularly detailed, with small brushstrokes to define each blade of grass and leaf of the trees, while in the flesh tones, on the faces and hands as well as in the coloured shadows, the artist has applied the colour in a sort of pastel technique to create a fusion of the details.

The painter frequently mixes different pigments as can be observed in the clouds, where small amounts of red lake and green are added to the pure lapis lazuli and lead white used for the sky. Vis-RS spectroscopy demonstrated that this precious natural ultramarine, finely ground, is used in all the blue areas, including the mountains, the water and the town in the background. Lapis lazuli is frequently added to pink clothes to reach a deeper tone, and it is superimposed to a layer of carmine-type red lake in Saint John the Evangelist’s robes to obtain its purplish hue. Other pigments of the palette include verdigris, lead-tin yellow, vermillion, ochre and brown earths, some black and lead white.

IR reflectography reveals that some thin trees were painted on the left, similar to the central one, and then they were covered with the sky; another tree, without the foliage, was painted in the background towards the rock of the thumb, then erased. A thin outline of underdrawing can be seen by IR reflectography under the figures. It is made with a small brush or a pen, without traces of pouncing or transfer from paper: the line of this drawing is not continuous but frequently interrupted, suggesting it was done ‘alla prima’. Very small corrections occurred between the underdrawing and the final painting.