Lot 21: Francesco Raibolini, il Francia (Bologna c. 1450-1517)

The Lamentation
oil on panel
12 1/2 x 15 1/3 in. (31.8 x 39.3 cm.)

E. Negro and N. Roio, Francesco Francia e la sua Scuola, Modena, 1998, p. 215, no. 103, illustrated.

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 21 April 1989, lot 119.
with Richard L. Feigen, New York, 1990-1.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 18 May 1995, lot 34.

Francesco Raibolini, better known as Francesco Francia, was a dominant figure in late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth-century Bologna. His earliest works reveal a careful study of the Ferrarese artists Francesco del Cossa and Ercole de' Roberti, but his greatest inspiration was Lorenzo Costa, with whom he collaborated on a number of commissions for the Bentivoglio family. After Costa's departure from Bologna in 1506, Francia's style became strongly influenced by Umbrian painting, especially that of Perugino.

This panel originally formed part of a predella, which is confirmed by the slots on the verso employed to mortise it into place. A late work, the present painting is close in style and composition to The Lamentation in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, and to the small Pietà in the National Gallery, London, both traditionally dated after 1510.