Neapolitan follower of Giotto, 'The Dead Christ and the Virgin', probably 1330s-40s

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The Dead Christ and the Virgin

Neapolitan follower of Giotto

Not on display

About the work

Overview

The Virgin, face partly obscured by her vast blue cloak, places a hand on her son’s bloody wound. He is shown upright, after his crucifixion. The image of Christ displaying his wounds after death was popular in the late Middle Ages as a focus for meditation upon his suffering. The spear used to pierce his side is painted on the back of the panel, along with other tools of the Crucifixion, including a hammer and nails.

The panel was originally the left half of a pair of images hinged together, or possibly part of a triptych (an object made up of three panels). The other part shows Saint John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene looking towards Christ in grief (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

The artist probably belonged to one of the Florentine painter Giotto’s workshops in Naples. This might have been made for Sancia, wife of the city’s ruler Robert of Anjou, whose particular focus for prayer was the body of Christ.

In-depth

We see Christ after the Crucifixion, bloody and almost naked. He is shown upright after death; this might seem unusual, but this type of image was very popular in the late Middle Ages as a focus for prayer and meditation on Christ’s suffering. His mother Mary holds his limp arm with one hand and touches his wound with the other. Blood drips down his stomach and pools in his loin cloth, only just visible but decorated with gold at its border. Christ’s eyes roll back slightly in their sockets. His muscles are drawn as simple, interconnecting shapes, with white lines highlighting his ribs and diaphragm. The Virgin and Christ’s facial features are outlined simply; they share narrow eyes, with eyelids that converge almost to a point, and a long straight nose.

Giotto, a Florentine artist, was called to Naples to work for its ruler, Robert of Anjou, in 1328. While he was there he assembled a large workshop of assistants. The painter of this panel may have worked with him on creating frescoes for the church of Santa Chiara. The angels above Christ and the Virgin are similar in pose and gesture to the mourning angels in the scene of the Lamentation of Christ in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Giotto’s most famous fresco cycle. The figures are broad and bulky, echoing the fullness of Giotto’s forms – the contour of the Virgin’s veil from head to neck leaves little definition of her neck, for example. This style might also show that the artist was more accustomed to painting in fresco, where bold shapes enabled the viewer to see the image clearly from a distance. The stark image is framed by an intricately incised border, creating a delicate, decorative effect.

The reverse is also painted, but probably not by Giotto or his workshop. The monochrome image shows the Cross of the Crucifixion, erected on a hillock. In front of it is a pot containing three nails, alongside which lies a hammer: the tools of the Crucifixion. Also shown are the spear that pierced Jesus’s side, giving him the wound he bears in the main painting.

This panel probably formed the left half of a diptych or maybe even a triptych. Another panel which probably belonged to the same object (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) shows Saint John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene grieving. Two lamenting angels swoop above, mirroring this panel.

There are two suggestions about who may have owned the picture: a friar called Fra Philip Alquier, who was the spiritual adviser to the nuns of Santa Chiara, where the painter may have worked, or the wife of Robert of Anjou, Queen Sancia of Naples. Both were known for their devotion to Christ’s sufferings. Philip is said to have bled, like Christ, from his hands, feet and side, so intense was his prayer. A letter from Sancia describes her prayerful meditations on Christ’s body. The presence of Mary Magdalene reinforces this suggestion: Fra Philip was the Guardian of the convent of Santa Maria Maddalena, which Sancia had founded for women who had formerly sold sex. Sancia also owned a relic of Mary Magdalene’s finger.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Dead Christ and the Virgin
Artist: Neapolitan follower of Giotto
Artist dates: about 1267 or 1276; died 1337
Date made: probably 1330s-40s
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 60 × 42.3 cm
Acquisition credit: Presented by Henry Wagner, 1924
Inventory number: NG3895
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

Thomas Watson Jackson Sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, 14 May 1915, lot 49 (as Sienese); bought by Wagner. Presented by Henry Wagner, 1924.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400’, London 2011; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2011

Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500

The National Gallery (London)

6 July 2011 - 2 October 2011
2013

Giotto e compagni

Musée du Louvre

17 April 2013 - 15 July 2013

Bibliography

1915

T. Borenius, 'A Little-Known Collection at Oxford - I', The Burlington Magazine, XXVII/145, 1915, pp. 21-7
1925

E. Hutton, The Sienese School in the National Gallery, London 1925
1925

National Gallery, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square: Catalogue, London 1925
1927

E. Panofsky, '"Imago pietatis": Ein Beitrag zur Typengeschichte des "Schmerzenmanns" und der "Maria Mediatrix"', in P.O. Kristeller (ed.), Festschrift für M. J. Friedländer, Leipzig 1927, pp. 261-308
1928

R. Lehman, The Philip Lehman Collection, New York: Paintings, Paris 1928
1928

H.D. Gronau, 'Notes on Trecento Painting', The Burlington Magazine, LIII/305, 1928, pp. 78-81
1931

L. Venturi, Pitture italiane in America, Florence 1931
1931

G.M. Richter, 'Review: L. Venturi, Pitture Italiane in America, 1931', The Burlington Magazine, LIX/344, 1931, pp. 250-1
1932

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
1936

B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento: Catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere con un indice dei luoghi, Milan 1936
1939

S. Ameisenowa, 'Opere inedite del Maestro del codice di San Giorgio', Rivista d'arte, II, 1939, pp. 118-9
1942

L. Coletti, 'Contributo al problema Maso-Giottino', Emporium, XLVI/575, 1942, pp. 461-78
1946

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, London 1946
1946

M. Meiss, 'Italian Primitives at Konopišt', Art Bulletin, XXVIII, 1946, pp. 8-11
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1969

F. Bologna, I pittori alla corte Angioina di Napoli, 1266–1414, Rome 1969
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1986

E. Castelnuovo (ed.), La pittura in Italia: Il Duecento e il Trecento, Milan 1986
1987

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Robert Lehman Collection, 1: Italian Paintings, New York 1987
1988

Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Italian Schools before 1400, revised edn, London 1988
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1996

P.L. de Castris, 'Roberto d'Oderisi', in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, London 1996, vol. 23, pp. 350-2
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2011

Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400, London 2011

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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