Study of a Young Man Moving to the Right

Author: Klazina Botke

Pordenone’s famous frescoes, painted by several artists in Cremona Cathedral between 1514 and 1520, are part of a large cycle on the subject of the life of Christ.^[1] The story covers all the walls of the nave and ends with the scenes, painted by Pordenone, of Christ Before Pilate, Christ Falls on the Road to Golgotha, Christ Is Nailed to the Cross and The Crucifixion, the last of these on the interior façade above the Great Door (c.1520-22). Pordenone completed his ambitious murals with minimal help from assistants in less than two years.^[2] The Crucifixion (fig.) was the most striking fresco for both its size – 9 by 12 metres – and its prominent position. This theatrical work established Pordenone’s reputation as one of the great innovators of his generation.^[3] A number of preliminary studies for this central fresco have survived, among them a composition study in New York and this drawing of a terrified young man looking over his shoulder, who appears lower right in the scene.^[4]

The fresco pictures the moment immediately after Christ’s death, as described in Matthew (27:51). The earth quakes with a great shock. We see the earth split in the foreground, so that the good and repentant people on the left side of the fresco are separated from the unbelievers on the right. The young man lower right looks over his shoulder at a man on a horse, who almost plunges into the abyss, and in panic grabs the cloak of the bald Pharisee behind him with both hands. He rides an ass, a traditional symbol to make the synagogue ridiculous. Pordenone involved the viewer both with the intense dynamism and powerful emotions of the scene and by creating parallels in the composition. Thus the fleeing youth has his counterpart in St John on the left. With a similar bewildered expression, John looks up at Christ while he supports the prostrate Virgin.^[5] Strikingly, the crosses are not placed symmetrically in the composition with Christ’s cross in the centre.^[6] That prominent position is taken here by a soldier in armour with a large sword. He looks the viewer in the eye and points to the principal figure with his outstretched left arm.

In the red chalk study, Pordenone captured the youth’s rapid movement with swiftly sketched lines and hatching, making him balance on his left leg. However, he was apparently unhappy with the right hand and drew it again, this time with the back of the hand facing up as we see it in the finished fresco. The study also shows an initial design for the young man’s costume: very tight-fitting breeches with a braguette (codpiece), puffed sleeves and flat, wide shoes. This outfit is strongly reminiscent of that of a landsknecht, a Swiss or German mercenary. Pordenone based his figure not only on German prints, such as those by Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), which he certainly knew, but possibly also on the real mercenaries who were active in Northern Italy.^[7] Pordenone quite often used these landsknechts in his work, and always to depict barbaric figures.

The sheet has been cut down on all sides, particularly on the left, so part of the youth’s right leg is missing. There is an attribution to Pordenone in an unknown seventeenth-century hand on the piece of paper attached lower right; its accuracy was first confirmed by Von Hadeln (1925), and has not been doubted since. The two red chalk studies on the verso tie in stylistically with the composition study of the group around the Virgin, now in New York.^[8]