Lot 28: BERNARDINO CAMPI

THE LAMENTATION WITH SAINT CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA, GABRIELE QUINTIANO AND POSSIBLY THE PROPHETS ELIJAH AND ELISHA

8 by 5 1/2 in; 202 by 140 mm

Red chalk with touches of black chalk

I Campi, exhib. cat., Cremona, Palazzo Comunale, 1985, p. 168, under cat. no. 1.15.16

London, P. & D. Colnaghi, 1985 (Old Master Drawings, no. 4, reproduced)

This finished drawing is a preparatory study for the painting by Bernardino now in the Pinacoteca di Brera (fig. 1). (1) The connection with the painting was first pointed out by Giulio Bora at the time of the Colnaghi exhibition. The painting was in the church of Santa Caterina in Cremona and was moved to Brera in 1811. Bernardino seems to have used the same composition in various replicas of the subject, including one in the church of San Lorenzo in Lodi, datable circa 1574. A modello in black chalk for the head of St. Catherine is in the Ambrosiana, Milan (Cod. F 268 Inf., no. 50).

A document of October 1572 (a copy of an original document from two months earlier) describes the commission and also mentions a drawing, very likely the present work: 'Reverendo padre frato Gabriel di Quintiano sotto priore di Santo Bartolomeo da Cremona incarica Bernardino Campi di dipingere ad olio su tela il Nostro Signore morto in brazo della Madonna con i Santi Caterina ed Alberto ....' The contract says that the painting should follow the drawing done by Bernardino and that the painter should also paint, in monochrome oil on canvas, la coperta del quadro, representing a Crucifixion, now lost. As we see from the drawing, St. Albert was substituted in the painted version by the Carmelite friar Gabriele Quintiano.

1. See Literature