Jacopino and Bartolomeo da Reggio

Chalandon collection, Château de Grange Blanche, Parcieux;
With Frederick Mont, New York, 1963;
Acquired by the late father of the present owner by 1965.

Piacenza, Palazzo Gotico, Il gotico a Piacenza. Maestri e botteghe tra Emilia e Lombardia, 21 March - 28 June 1998, no. 4.

C. Volpe "Per il Problema di Andrea de' Bartoli, pittore dell' Albornoz", in E. Verdera (ed.), El Cardenal Albornoz y el Colegio de España. Studia Albornotiana: Publicaciones de Real Colegio de España en Bolonia, vol. XXXVI, Saragoza 1979, p. 52 (as Andrea de' Bartoli);
C. Volpe, 'Andrea de' Bartoli a la svolta antigotica nella seconda metà del Trecento', in Paragone, Anno XXXII, no. 373, March 1981, p. 10, reproduced plate 6 (as Circle of Andrea de' Bartoli);
R. Gibbs, "Recent Development in the Study of Bolognese and Trecento Illustration," in The Burlington Magazine, CXXVI, 1984, p. 639, note no. 15;
R. Gibbs, Tomaso da Modena. Painting in Emilia and the March of Treviso 1340-1380, Cambridge 1989, p. 219;
G. Freuler, "Manifestatori delle cose miracolose" in Arte italiana dell '300 e '400 da Collezioni in Svizzera e nel Liechtenstein, exhibition catalogue, Lugano 1991, p 145;
G. Giacobino, "Bartolomeo e Jacopino da Reggio," in Pinacoteca di Brera. Scuola emiliana, Milan 1991, pp.  54 - 55;
C. Volpe, "La pittura del Trecento in Emilia e in Romagna," in La pittura nell'Emilia e nella Romagna, Modena 1993, p. 42, 190;
M. Ferretti, "Gli affreschi del Trecento. Pittori a Parma, pittori di Parma," in Battistero de Parma. La decorazione pittorica, Milan 1993, p. 151, note no. 64;
G. Lottici Tessadri, Bartolomeo e Jacopino da Reggio e la pittura reggiana del Trecento, thesis from the Università degli Studi di Udine, Udine 1995-96, pp. 91 - 96, cat. no. 7;
D. Benati in P. Ceschi Lavagetto and Antonella Gigli (ed.), Il gotico a Piacenza - Maestri e botteghe tra Emilia e Lombardia, exhibition catalogue, Piacenza 1998, p. 165, cat. no. 4, reproduced p. 85;
D. Benati, "Da Reggio a Piacenza: pittori sulla via Emilia nella prima metà del Quattrocento", in L'artista girovago.  Forestieri, avventurieri, emigranti e missionari nell’arte del Trecento in Italia del Nord, S. Romano and D. Cerutti (ed.), Rome 2012, pp. 85 - 87, reproduced fig. 6.

The following condition report has been provided by Karen Thomas of Thomas Art Conservation LLC., 336 West 37th Street, Suite 830, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-4024, info@thomasartconservation.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. A picture in excellent condition overall. The bright freshness of the colors, many fine details in the individualized faces and garments, and excellently preserved paint and mordant-gilt embellishments are notable. Consistent with the age of the painting, wear is visible in the gold ground. Restoration primarily addresses an irregularly shaped loss running through the guards casting lots at foot of cross; other scattered, small, retouched losses are visible under ultraviolet illumination. Strengthening is found in Mary's mantle. The planar surface displays an even satiny sheen. At some point in the past, the wood panel support was thinned and adhered to a secondary wood support, a not uncommon treatment. A lightweight cradle has been attached to the reverse, most crossbars are locked. The cradle and the exposed surface of the secondary support have been stained.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This dramatically vivid Crucifixion scene, dating to circa 1345-1350, provides a rare insight into the stylistic development of Emilian brothers Jacopino and Bartolomeo da Reggio.  Absorbing influences from neighboring Bologna and Mantua, their style transformed, veering away from earlier simplistic compositions, and instead embracing the bustling dynamism and expressive narrative that is exemplified so beautifully in the present lot.  In 1984, Robert Gibbs recognized this impressive panel as the work of Bartolomeo and Jacopino da Reggio, citing its affinity with a triptych signed, HANC TABULA(M) FECERU(N)T BA(R)TOLOMEU(S) ET JACOPINU(S) D(E) REGIO, in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan (inv. no. 6019).¹  The present painting is very close in style to the Brera to complex, particularly in the treatment of the Christ figure and the positioning of the attending angels.  The centurion in armor, here shown minus his helmet, is almost identical to that in the signed painting, turning slightly to the right, his right arm crooked and his left hand grasping the long curved dagger with its curiously forked bolster.² 

First publishing this panel in 1979, Carlo Volpe noted its iconographic affinity with a Crucifixion fresco adorning the far wall of the Gonzaga chapel in the Palazzo del Capitano, Mantua.³  The Mantuan fresco, now partially destroyed, has a distinctly Bolognese configuration and is now thought to be by Andrea de’ Bartolo, painted circa 1328.⁴  It seems the fresco must have been known to Jacopino and Bartolomeo, who appear to echo passages from it in their design of the present composition, for example the group of crouching figures, lower right.  Vigorously casting lots for their share of Christ’s clothing, the group includes a figure wearing the same uncommon Mexican style brimmed hat and the turbaned Jewish figure, both replicated from the Gonzaga fresco.⁵ 

We can get a clear sense of Jacopino and Bartolomeo's artistic progression by comparing the present painting with the brothers' earlier composition, the so-called Tassarola Crucifixion.⁶  The fresco, decorating the wall of the Tassarola Madonna Oratory in Santo Spirito, Reggio, was executed by Jacopino and Bartolomeo between the very late 1330s and 1345.  While the figure of Christ in the Tassorola Crucifixion is again very similar, with the artists’ characteristic musculature and sinuous limbs, the figure is painted in a less refined manner.  The drapery is arranged in a less complex fashion and treatment of Christ’s expression and features less delicate.  Daniele Benati dates the present triptych between 1345 and 1350 and the advancement of the artists, even in the time since the execution of the Tassarola fresco, is pronounced.⁷

Perhaps most apparent is the departure from the simplistic narrative of both the Brera and Tassorola paintings, in favor of the frenetic scene shown here.  This dynamic and adroit narrative style adopted by Jacopino and Bartolomeo is in keeping with the contemporary aesthetic, forged by the young Vitale da Bologna which swept through Emilia Romagna in the period.⁸  Evidence of Vitale’s Bolognese influence can also be found in the brothers’ rendering of the cross, depicted as roughly hewn tree trunks, and the lateral bar resting on the stump of a sawn-off branch.  A bustling throng is amassed at the base of the cross and intensely expressive faces peer from even the smallest breaks in the crowd.  The group itself is divided into three strata, with crouching figures in the foreground and figures raised on horseback beyond, to add depth and further crowd the scene, creating a deliberate sense of clamor and disordered drama. 

 

1.  R. Gibbs, op. cit., p. 219.
2.  Ibid.
3.  C. Volpe 1979, op. cit.
4.  D. Benati 2012, op. cit., p. 85.
5.  Ibid., p.86.
6.  Ibid., p. 94, reproduced fig. 5.
7.  D. Benati 1998, op. cit., p. 165.
8.  D. Benati 2012, op. cit., p. 85.