Circle of Titian

Count Polcenigo, Venice, by 1949;

Pier Maria Bardi, New York, before 1959;

Gaetano Miani, Brazil; 

From whom acquired by Barbara Piasecka Johnson (1937–2013) in 1982.

Possibly M. Michiel, Der Anonimo Morelliano: Marcanton Michiel's Notizia d'opere del disegno, 1530, Th. Frimmel (ed.), Vienna 1888, p. 106 (‘El Christo morto sopra el sepolcro, cun lanzolo chel sostenta, fo de man de Zorzi da Castelfranco reconzata da Titiano’);

H. Tietze, Titian, London 1950, p. 12 (as begun by Giorgione and completed by Titian);

R. Pallucchini, ‘Contributi alla pittura veneta del Cinquecento, I) "El Cristo Morto Vendramin"’, in Arte Veneta, XIII–XIV, 1959–60, pp. 39–45, reproduced before and after cleaning on pp. 40 and 41, figs 53 and 54; X-ray and reconstruction of underlying composition on p. 42, figs 55 and 56; and in colour on pp. 43 and 45, figs 57 and fig. 58, detail (as Giorgione and Titian);

G. Robertson, ‘Some Recent Venetian Publications’, in The Burlington Magazine, June 1961, vol. 103, p. 284 (as Savoldo);

Goya, no. 40, 1961, p. 309;

E. Serra, Del ‘Cristo Morto’ di Giorgine, visto da Marcantonio Michiel, Florence 1962, pp. 14–20 (as not the Giorgione–Titian recorded in the Vendramin collection); 

P. Zampetti, L'opera completa di Giorgione, Milan 1968, pp. 93–94, no. 29, reproduced, with detail of X-ray (as begun by Giorgione and completed by Titian);

R. Pallucchini, Tiziano, Florence 1969, vol. I, pp. 25, 65, 262–63, no. 190 (as begun by Giorgione and completed by Titian not before 1520, c. 1510–30); 

T. Pignatti, Giorgione, Venice 1969, pp. 109–10, reproduced pl. 107 (as begun by Giorgione and completed by Titian circa 1510, painted with two different techniques);

F. Valcanover, L'opera completa di Tiziano, Milan 1969, p. 100, no. 88, reproduced (as authorship uncertain but he believes the figure of Christ is by Titian and datable circa 1519);

H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, The Religious Paintings, vol. I, London 1969, p. 171, under ‘Appendix’, no. X-10 (as Venetian school, about 1530);

J. Anderson, 'A further Inventory of Gabriel Vendramin's Collection', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 121, October 1979, p. 643 (doubting the Vendramin provenance and the identification of the picture as the work by Giorgione seen by Michiel);

T. Pignatti and K. Donahue, The Golden Century of Venetian Painting, exh. cat., Los Angeles 1979, pp. 50–51, no. 10, reproduced in colour (as begun by Giorgione and completed by Titian, circa 1508–10);

H. Belting, Giovanni Bellini, Pietà. Ikone und Bilderzählung in der venezianischen Malerei, Frankfurt 1985, p. 74, reproduced p. 73, fig. 33 (as Giorgione);

A. Gentili, in Opus Sacrum, Catalogue of the exhibition from the collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson, J. Grabski (ed.), exh. cat., Warsaw 1990, pp. 130–35, no. 21, reproduced in colour (as Giorgione, reworked by Titian ‘some time between 1522 and 1525’); 

A. Gentili, ‘Giorgione non finitio, finito, indefinito’, in R. Varese (ed.), Studi per Pietro Zampetti, Ancona 1993, pp. 289–90, 291 and 297 nn. 7 and 8, reproduced fig. 152 (as begun by Giorgione and reworked by Titian circa 1522–25); 

M. Lucco, Giorgione, Milan 1995, p. 151, reproduced (under other selected works attributed to Giorgione, as Titian); 

J. Anderson, Giorgione, New York 1997, p. 337, reproduced (under rejected attributions, as workshop of Titian);

T. Pignatti and F. Pedrocco, Giorgione, Munich 1999, p. 176, no. 28, reproduced in colour on p. 177 (as begun by Giorgione and completed by Titian);

F. Pedrocco, Titian. The Complete Paintings, London 2001, p. 80, no. 13, reproduced in colour (as Giorgione, finished by Titian);

B. Jestaz, ‘Les collections de peinture à Venise au XVI^e siècle’, in Geografia del collezionismo. Italia e Francia tra il XVI e il XVIII secolo, conference proceedings of study days in honour of Giuliano Briganti, Rome, 19–21 September 1996, O. Bonfait, M. Hochmann, L. Spezzaferro and B. Toscano (eds), Rome 2001, p. 193, A 19, reproduced pl. IIa (doubting the identification of the picture as the work by Giorgione seen by Michiel in the Vendramin collection); 

R. Lauber, ‘"Et è il nudo che ho in pittura de l'istesso Zorzi". Per Giorgione e Marcantonio Michiel’, in Arte Veneta, 59, 2002, pp. 102–3, 112, nn. 64, 66 and 67, reproduced in colour p. 102, fig. 4; X-ray and detail, p. 103, figs 5 and 6 (as Giorgione and Titian);

M. Lucco, in Antonello da Messina, l'opera completa, exh. cat., Milan 2006, p. 264, under no. 44 (noting Pallucchini's observation that the work was inspired by Antonello's painting now at the Prado);

C.R. Puglisi and W.L. Barcham, Art and Faith in the Venetian World, Venerating Christ as the Man of Sorrows, Turnhout 2019, pp. 219–21, 394–95 nn. 66–73, reproduced in colour p. 220, fig. 168 and as a detail on p. 202 (as Titian, circa 1515–20).