Lot 277: AN ITALIAN CIRCULAR MARBLE BAS-RELIEF OF THE DEAD CHRIST SUPPORTED BY ANGELS, BY URBANO (DI PIETRO) DA CORTONA (1426-1504) , THIRD QUARTER 16TH CENTURY, SIENA

measurements note
height 22 1/4 in., width 23 1/2 in., depth 4 3/8 in.; 57.2 by 59 by 11cm.

the figure of Christ depicted frontally with the two winged angels in profile lowering His body into a sarcophagus ornamented with four panels of stylized rosettes, the angels supporting His crossed arms at the elbows and shoulders, each with nimbus over His head and set within a circular architectural, integral frame.

LITERATURE

"Urbano da Cortona," in Dal Romanico al Rinascimento (exh.cat), Antichi maestri pittori, Turin, 21 November-21 December 1986), Turin, 1986, (illus.)
G. Gentilini, in Dal Trecento al Seicento: Le Arti a Paragone (exh.cat.), 2 October-30 November, 1991, Turin, 1991, pp. 39-45, (illus.)
R. Munman, "Urbano da Cortona: Corrections and Contributions," in Verrocchio and Late Quattrocento Italian Sculpture, Florence, 1992, pp. 238-239, fig. 192,(illus.)
G. Gentilini, in Franceso di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena 1450-1500, ed. by L. Bellosi (exh.cat., Chiesa di Sant'Agostino, Siena, 25 April-31 July 1993), Milan, 1993, pp. 190, 529.
G. Gentilini, "Urbano di Pietro-Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels" in Italian Renaissance Sculpture, Salander O'Reilly Galleries, New York, pp. 22-29, (illus.)

RELATED LITERATURE
G.Gentilini, "Urbano da Cortona", in La Scultura (exh.cat.), Collezione Chigi Saracini, Siena 1989, pp.59-64, nos. 38-39, 41.

NOTE

The ascription of the present relief to Urbano da Cortona rests on the comparison with surviving documented reliefs by him in the chapel of the Madonna della Grazie in the Siena Cathedral and a hexagonal relief, also of the Dead Christ, formerly in the church of SS. Simone e Giuda a Malamerenda and now in the Museo diocesano d'arte sacra in Siena.

When Pope-Hennessy attributed a stucco relief of the Nativity in the Victoria and Albert Museum to Urbano (of which a number of variations survive), he claimed that, among few others, the only valid basis for a reconstruction of his work is provided by the Madonna della Grazie reliefs. One of these, the Birth of the Virgin, also illustrated by Gentilini in his entry for the hexagonal Madonna and Child in the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini, has a close affinity to the present relief in the depiction of the attending female figure at lower right. Note in particular the restrained undulating striations to her hair and especially the simple punch-hole marks to the collar of her tunic, identical to those found on the present angels. The face of the apostle at far right, in another relief in the cycle, depicting The Apostles taking leave of the Virgin, as well as the reliefs of the Evangelists and Prophets illustrated by Gentilini, are also comparable to the head of Christ as it appears here, with eyes set close together towards the top of the head.

The commission for the decoration of the chapel dates to October 1451, by which time Urbano had already established his reputation in Padua as an assistant in Donatello's workshop (along with Giovanni da Pisa), helping with the commission for the high altar in the Santo. Urbano was paid 28 ducats for the execution of an Evangelist's symbol and one of the reliefs of angels; however the documents do not specify which are his. After a brief sojourn in Perugia, where he executed the Baglioni monument in the cathedral, he settled in Siena.

It is interesting to note that of the surviving reliefs from the Chapel of the Madonna, one depicting the Symbol of St. Matthew is heavily dependent on Donatello's relief of the same subject in the Santo. The head of the right-hand angel on the present relief seems to be a direct interpretation of Donatello's St. Matthew, leading one to suppose that Urbano could have based the composition of the present relief on another of Donatello's Santo reliefs, that of the Dead Christ with two Angels.

One final comparison, perhaps unknown to Pope-Hennessy, is Urbano's relief depicting The Dead Christ with the Madonna and St. John in the Museo diocesano. The format of this relief, in its linear and iconic subservience to an architectural framework, in this case of hexagonal form rather than circular, as well as the arrangement of the frontal figure of Christ with flanking profile figures, is very similar in style and figure type to the present work.