Deposition of Christ with Madonna and Two Angels

Venusti Marcello

(Como c. 1515 - Rome 1579)

The work was historically ascribed to Marcello Venusti, an attribution also accepted by critics. The painting derives from a drawing by Michelangelo dedicated to the noblewoman Vittoria Colonna.

Object details

Commentary

The drawing for the Pietà done by Michelangelo (Boston, Isabelle Stewart-Gardner Museum), the model for this painting, before being cut out, had the traditional Y-shaped medieval cross at the top embellished with a quotation from Dante (‘non vi si pensa quanto sangue costa’ [They think not there how much of blood it costs], Paradise XXIX, 91) – elements that can only be found in the oldest printed reproduction by Giulio Bonasone (London, British Museum). In the panel version, Venusti inserts behind the figures an apocalyptic landscape, which is crossed by a river tinted by the light of dusk. The almost metallic colours of the Virgin’s robe and Christ’s body are reflected in the sky, heightening the dramatic but at the same time sense of the divine. Thus, based on the various tests carried out on Michelangelo’s ‘little cartoons’, Venusti might be considered an ‘accredited translator’ rather than a copyist: his output has been considered the main driving force behind the imitation of Michelangelo’s inventions during the Counter-Reformation (Parrilla 2019). The profound reappraisal of Venusti’s work is thanks to Federico Zeri, who recognised his artistic independence, far from being a passive adherent to Michelangelo’s models, thus lifting Venusti out of the ‘grey zone into which he had been banished’ (1957, pp. 33-34).

The painting, mentioned in the Borghese inventory of 1693 as ‘a painting (...) on panel with the Pietà, No. 45 with a gilded frame by Michelangelo Bonarota’ (inv. 1693, no. 45), was already being attributed to Venusti in the 1790 inventory. Some critics have recently ‘removed’ the panel from his catalogue (see Forcellino 2009, pp. 119-125), convincingly arguing for names such as Marco Pino, a claim based on stylistic considerations, especially in the facial features and the composition of the backdrop (Simone Bolzoni 2019, pp. 92-95). An identically sized drawing of the Pietà is held in Haarlem (Haarlem, Teylers Museum, inv. B 90) mistakenly attributed to Venusti by Davidson (1973, p. 6), while a pictorial version in a private collection is believed to have been signed by the painter, in view of an inscription (‘M. B. INVENTOR / MARCELLUS VENUSTA’) no longer visible but noted by Frey in 1909 (Simone Bolzoni 2019).   

Gabriele De Melis