Dead Christ with Two Angels

Author: Klazina Botke

Devotional images of the dead Christ, often shown half length, have their origins in the late Middle Ages. They were designed to encourage meditation on his suffering and death. In this study we see Christ’s lifeless body resting on a shroud on the edge of his tomb, supported by two angels who lift him up gently so that we can clearly behold his body. It is interesting to note that the wounds left on the body by the crucifixion are not depicted, although they would have emphasized his suffering even more graphically.

The work comes from the collection of the renowned collector Zaccaria Sagredo (1653-1729), as evidenced by the ‘Sagredo number’ written in pen and ink on the verso of the sheet (B.B.no:10). The B.B. stands for Bottega Bassanese, the Bassano family’s workshop in Venice.^[1] When Franz Koenigs bought the drawing in 1927, however, it was attributed to the Veronese painter Francesco Montemezzano (1555-after 1602). Soon afterwards Anna Koenigs corrected this to Francesco Bassano (1549-1592).^[2] Tietze/Tietze-Conrat, though, believed that the style of the drawing corresponded more closely to the work of his younger brother Leandro (1557-1622), particularly in comparison with a drawing in London, which is certainly by him.^[3] This preliminary study in black chalk, made for a lost altarpiece (1619-1622) for the church of Santa Lucia in Venice, depicts five saints and a group of angels.^[4] We see here how the same use of strong outlines in black chalk and the figures’ round faces, like the long fingers, particularly evident in Christ’s left hand, correspond. Tietze/Tietze-Conrat were especially struck by resemblances between the angels in the two drawings, although it should be noted that the angels in the London drawing were clearly set down more swiftly and were less worked out.

The study is squared so that the composition can be transferred, possibly to a canvas or other support. In Cleveland there is a painting by Leandro with the dead Christ and two angels attending the body, but the positions of the figures in our drawing differ from this too much for it to be a direct preliminary study for that work.^[5] Our composition is more akin to a work by Andrea Schiavone (c.1510/1515-1563) in Dresden, which is why Van Regteren Altena even proposed him as the sheet’s draughtsman.^[6] Given that the study clearly links stylistically with Bassano’s work, this does not seem very likely. The sheet could perhaps be a preparatory study for another work by Leandro, or an earlier version of the composition in Cleveland.