Giampietrino, 'Christ carrying his Cross', probably about 1510-30
About the work
Overview
Christ turns to look at us as he carries the Cross on which he will be crucified. This type of painting, in which the viewer is put in the position of the holy women on whom Christ looked on the route to Calvary, was especially popular in North Italy in the sixteenth century. Christ’s eyes appeal to us in his pain to stir our emotions and arouse our compassion.
Giampietrino’s composition is based on a silver-point study of the same subject by Leonardo, which was also used by a range of artists working in Lombardy at the time.
The National Gallery’s panel is one of several more or less identical versions of the same picture by Giampietrino, which suggests that he kept reusing the same cartoon (full-scale drawing). Charcoal was rubbed through holes in the pricked cartoon to trace the outlines on the panel for painting.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Christ carrying his Cross
- Artist
- Giampietrino
- Artist dates
- active about 1500 - 1550
- Date made
- probably about 1510-30
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 59.7 × 47 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Layard Bequest, 1916
- Inventory number
- NG3097
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1584G.P. Lomazzo, Trattato dell'arte della pittura, Milan 1584
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1887F. Kugler, Handbook of Painting: The Italian Schools, eds C.L. Eastlake and A.H. Layard, 5th edn, London 1887
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1901T. von Frimmel, Geschichte der Wiener Gemäldegalerie, viertes Capitel, die Galerie in der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Leipzig 1901
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1912A. Venturi, 'La formazione della Galleria Layard a Venezia', L'arte, XV, 1912, pp. 449-62
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1961Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste in Wien, Katalog der Gemälde Galerie, Vienna 1961
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1966L. Cogliati Arano, Disegni di Leonardo e della sua cerchia alle Gallerie dell'Accademia (exh. cat. Gallerie dell'Accademia, 10 September 1966- 28 February 1967), Venice 1966
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1967A. Pigler, Katalog der Galerie Alter Meister, Budapest 1967
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1971N. Gabrielli, Galleria Sabauda: Maestri italiani, Torino 1971
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1981A. Romagnolo, La pinacoteca dell'Accademia dei Concordi, Rovigo 1981
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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1987P.C. Marani, Leonardo e i leonardeschi a Brera, Florence 1987
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1992C. Geddo, 'Le pale d'altare di Giampietrino: Ipotesi per un percorso stilistico', Arte lombarda, CI, 1992, pp. 67-82
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1992P.C. Marani, 'Leonardo e il Cristo portacroce', in Palazzo Grassi, Leonardo e Venezia, Milan 1992, pp. 344-57
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1995P.P. Fehl, 'In Praise of Imitation: Leonardo and His Followers', Gazette des beaux-arts, CXXXVII/126, 1995, pp. 1-12
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1996L. Keith and A. Roy, 'Giampietrino, Boltraffio, and the Influence of Leonardo', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVII, 1996, pp. 4-19
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
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