Imitator of Andrea Mantegna, 'The Maries at the Sepulchre', perhaps 1460-1550
Three Scenes of the Passion of Christ
These three panels celebrate Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead. It is likely that all three came from the same series and were painted by the same artist. The pictures reflect aspects of Mantegna’s style, particularly engravings he made at the end of the 1450s and beginning of the 1460s. The jagged rock formations, the angular folds of the draperies and the sinuous figures are particularly characteristic of Mantegna’s paintings.
The painter is unknown but technical analysis of the pigments used shows that they are unlikely to have been painted more than about 50 years after Mantegna’s death. Analysis of the underdrawing (the initial design as drawn on the panel) shows that the painter did not make any alterations to the overall design or any of the details. This suggests that they were tracing directly from a pre-existing image rather than inventing an original composition.
These three panels celebrate Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead. The first shows the moment at which his tomb was found empty, the second his appearance to Mary Magdalene – both events that are recorded in the Gospels. The third shows him triumphant over death, standing upon his tomb, holding the red and white flag of the Resurrection.
The pictures reflect aspects of Mantegna’s style, particularly engravings made at the end of the 1450s and beginning of the 1460s, and so have been thought to be painted in imitation of his works. The jagged rock formations, the angular folds of the draperies and the slim, elongated limbs of the figures are all characteristic of Mantegna’s paintings. Similarly, certain motifs, such as the soldiers asleep by Christ’s tomb in The Resurrection and the tree encircled by the vine in Noli me Tangere, appear in works by Mantegna himself.
All three came from the same series and were painted by the same artist. There have been various ideas about who the artist might have been – it has been suggested, for example, that it may have been Mantegna’s son, Francesco – but so far they remain unidentified. Technical analysis of the pigments shows that they are unlikely to have been painted more than about 50 years after Mantegna’s death.
Analysis of the underdrawing shows that the painter did not make any alterations to the overall design or any of the details, which suggests that they were tracing directly from a pre-existing image rather than inventing an original composition. They might be copies of images painted by Mantegna for his patrons at the Gonzaga court in Mantua, perhaps for the private chapel there.
Two of the panels came from the Palazzo Capponi in Florence before they were purchased by English collector John Sanford of Corsham Court, Wiltshire. Sanford, who lived in Florence from 1832 to 1837, was one of the most active collectors of Italian painting in the first half of the nineteenth century.
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