Lot 66: Francesco Raibolini, il Francia (Bologna c. 1450-1517)

Christ the Man of Sorrows
oil on panel
22 3/8 x 17 1/8 in. (56.9 x 43.5 cm.)

E. Negro and N. Roio, Francesco Francia e la sua Scuola, Modena, 1998, p. 208, no. 88, illustrated.

with early inventory number 3164 (on the reverse).
with J. Leger & Son, 1958, from whom purchased by the father-in-law of the present owner in 1959.

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY (LOTS 32, 66 and 92)

Originally a goldsmith by training, and according to Vasari, a highly accomplished maker of medals, Francia took up painting relatively late in his career, around 1485, and quickly became one of the most successful artists in Bologna during the early sixteenth century. His early style owed much to the Ferrarese School, which he later modified and softened under the influence of first Lorenzo Costa and then Perugino, producing delicate and profound devotional works for the churches in and around his native city.

Negro and Roio (loc. cit.) place the present work in Francia's late maturity and compare the pathos of the figure and beautiful modelling of the face and hands with two other works by him of Christ Carrying the Cross (private collection; and Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, ibid., nos. 87.a and 104). Francia had two sons, Giacomo and Giulio, both of whom became painters, and who are thought to have collaborated with their father on some of his later works. Prior to publication of the present work Professor Daniele Benati had suggested an attribution to Giacomo, on the basis of a photograph.

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