MAESTRO OF CENTRAL ITALY OF THE 16th CENTURY
Relief with lamentation over Christ deposed from the Cross
gilt bronze, cm 25,5×20
A dramatic image inspired by a pictorial masterpiece of Rosso Fiorentino, made in 1528 for the church of San Lorenzo, in Sansepolcro. In this relief, the bold and unconventional solutions chosen by the great mannerist artist are classicized and regulated, as can be seen with the soldier with a spear and a shield at the foot of the cross who, abandoning the monstrous and animal-like features that characterized him in the painting, has now become a handsome young man, with classical features.
In the second part of the sixteenth century, when the work in question was likely made, Italian sculptor Guglielmo della Porta (c. 1515-1577), who was very much influenced by Michelangelo, conceived a similar relief with the same subject, known in different versions, such as the one preserved at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, in Sarasota (inv. n. SN7181).
Publications:
“PAX TIBI. Mostra paci liturgiche XVI-XVIII sec.”, exhibition catalog edited by Associazione Amici di Gaeta, Museo Diocesano, Gaeta, 2011, n. 27, p. 38.
