Lot 139: Francesco Raibolini, il Francia (Bologna c. 1450-1517)

The Lamentation oil on panel 121/2 x 151/2 in. (31.7 x 39.4 cm.) PROVENANCE Anon. Sale [The Property of a Lady of Title], Christie's, London, 21 April 1989, lot 119 (sold œ38,000). with Richard L. Feigen, New York, 1990-1. Anon. Sale, Christie's, New York, 18 May 1995, lot 34. LITERATURE E. Negro and N. Roio, Francesco Francia e la sua Scuola, Modena, 1998, p. 215, no. 103, illustrated in colour. NOTES As was recognised at the time of its emergence in 1989, this predella panel is a relatively late work by Francia: Negro and Roio propose a date in the second decade of the cinquecento. The composition is directly related to that of another, but evidently earlier, panel in the National Gallery, London, no. 2671 (Negro and Roio, no. 102), which itself is related to a drawing of circa 1510-12 by Raphael (Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, no. 3858), that represents a development from an iconography established two decades earlier by Perugino. In this panel the figures of Christ, the Magdalen, Saint John the Evangelist and Joseph of Arimathea correspond with those of the London picture: the Virgin, stooping in grief, replaces her standing counterpart with hands extended of the earlier picture, and her head is echoed by the grieving attendant Mary whose veil is silhouetted against the dark niche on the left - and she in turn balances the key iconographic addition to the composition, Saint Francis. Relatively few predella panels by Francia are known, the finest examples being those of the early Pala Felicini of 1490 (now divided between Lisbon, Glasgow and a private collection). Both this and the National Gallery panel would appear to have been devised as central elements and it may be significant that the S. Cecilia Crucifixion (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, no. 551) appears to have a blank central section flanked by trompe l'oeil acanthus friezes; both this and the London Deposition may have been originally set between similar decorative panels. The present panel was presumably intended for a Franciscan commission, but it should be born in mind that Saint Francis must also have had a particular meaning for the artist himself. Trained as a goldsmith, Francia turned relatively late to painting. His taste was similar to, and evidently influenced by, that of his slightly younger contemporary Perugino; and Francia too devised an ostensibly classical style that lent itself to religious expression, and supplied a model for his numerous pupils and imitators. With its subtle symmetries and fluid execution this panel exemplifies Francia's late style.