Descent from the Cross
(Bassano del Grappa 1510 - 1592)
Listed in the 1790 inventory of the collection with attribution to Jacopo Bassano, the work derives, albeit with some differences, from a painting by the Venetian painter held in the Musée du Louvre or from one of his lost originals.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Late 16th - early 17th century
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection, listed in the 1790 Inventory, room VIII, no. 32; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 40. Purchased by Italian State, 1902.
Commentary
The work first appeared in the 1790 inventory, where it is mentioned with a generic attribution to the Bassano family. In Piancastelli’s catalogue (1891) it was referred to as being ‘in the manner of’ Jacopo Bassano, while Venturi (1893) ascribed it to Jacopo himself. After Longhi called it a ‘derivation’, Paola della Pergola (1955), followed by Arslan (1960, p. 366), associated it with the Musée du Louvre version (inv. 433) (see A. Galansino, in Titien, Tintoret, Véronèse 2009, p. 388, cat. 84). This in turn was linked with the small model in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon (inv. 1641 Pint) (see J. Oliveira Caetano, in El Greco 2023, pp. 180-181, no. 19), as identified by Rearick (1992, p. CLXXVI). Della Pergola listed several variants of the subject, believing them to be derivations from an original by Jacopo, as did Rearick (ibid.); among these is the large painting in the Louvre, from the collection of Paolo Giordano II Orsini dated before 1577 (see Furlotti 2013). The composition of the Louvre painting is, however, less crowded and compressed than that of the Galleria Borghese, where the space, engulfed by darkness, in the left foreground is filled by the weeping Mary, consoled by a young man. There are also substantial differences in the figures in the right section of the scene. The hypothesis of the existence of a lost variant on the theme of the Deposition, of which the copy in the Galleria Borghese is one of the examples, would therefore seem plausible.
Elisa Martini
Bibliography
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 46
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 214
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 222
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, I, Roma 1955, p. 104, n. 185, fig. 184
- R. Longhi, Edizione delle opere complete. II. Saggi e ricerche 1925-1928, 2 voll., Firenze 1967, I, p. 354
- K. Herrmann Fiore, Museo e Galleria Borghese. Roma scopre un tesoro. Dalla pinacoteca ai depositi un museo che non ha più segreti, San Giuliano Milanese 2006, p. 152
- W.R. Rearick, Vita ed opere di Jacopo dal Ponte, detto Bassano c.1510-1592, in Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510-1592), catalogo della mostra (Bassano del Grappa, Museo Civico, 1992; Forth Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 1992-93), a cura di B.L. Brown, P. Marini, Bologna 1992, pp. LVIII-CCIII
- Titien, Tintoret, Véronèse: rivalités à Venise, catalogo della mostra (Paris, Musée du Louvre, 17 settembre 2009-4 gennaio 2010), a cura di V. Dieulevin, J. Habert, Paris 2009
- B. Furlotti, From Paolo Giordano II Orsini to cardinal Giulio Mazarino: the journey from Rome to France of a painting by Jacopo Bassano, in “Studiolo”, 10, 2013, p. 242-248, p. 242-248, fig. 1
- El Greco - un pittore nel labirinto, catalogo della mostra (Milano, Palazzo Reale, 11 ottobre 2023-11 febbraio 2024), a cura di J.A. García Castro, P. Martínez-Burgos García, Milano 2023, pp. 180-181, n. 19
