Lot 2003 Dα

The present tavoletta depicting Christ on the Cross perfectly epitomizes the style of Bernardino Zaganelli, brother of the painter Francesco Zaganelli. After their apprenticeship within Ercole de´Roberti´s workshop, the Zaganelli brothers shared a studio in their native Cotignola from about 1499 until Bernardino's death in 1509. (1) While mutual influence, contribution, and re-use of motifs can be traced within the corpus of the two artists, the classicism and devotional inclination displayed here by Bernardino differs from the examples of his brother Francesco.

His awareness of the works of Perugino (c. 1450-1524), is coupled by Bernardino with a refined technique under the influence of Northern art, in particular that of Dürer. The expressive rendering of the Christ and the taste for naturalistic details are also of Northern influence, and testify how Bernardino Zaganelli developed a personal modus, re-working and modernizing the Quattrocento Ferrarese examples.

The small format and the minimalism of the composition seem to indicate that the work was conceived for private devotion and can be placed within the artist's maturity: indeed, the Baptism of Christ (London, National Gallery), painted around 1505/1506, offers a number of parallels with the present painting. (2)

(1) See the monograph by Raffaella Zama, Gli Zaganelli (Francesco e Bernardino) pittori, Rimini 1994. For a critical review of this catalogue raisonné, see Andrea De Marchi: Ioanes Ispanus. La pala di Viadana. Tracce di Classicismo precoce lungo la valle del Po, exh. cat., Comune di Viadana, Galleria Civica G. Bedoli, 2000, p. 149. For Bernardino's own corpus, see Andrea De Marchi: Bernardino Zaganelli inedito: due 'facies Christi', in: Prospettiva, nos. 75- 76, 1994, pp.124-135.
(2) Raffaella Zama, op. cit., pp.168-170, no. 58.