{"id":878,"date":"2011-06-09T10:28:05","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T14:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso2\/"},"modified":"2015-08-04T17:01:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T21:01:38","slug":"p-20","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/paintings\/p-20\/","title":{"rendered":"P.20 Christ in Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

P.20 Christ in Glory<\/p><\/div>\n

1528; 1529\u20131530<\/p>\n

Citt\u00e0 di Castello, Cathedral.<\/p>\n

Panel (poplar), 345 x 2581<\/sup><\/a> (the four corners cut, see below).<\/p>\n

Fig.P.20a<\/a>
Fig.P.20b<\/a> bw
Fig.P.20c<\/a> woman in blue
Fig.P.20d<\/a> bw, Moor, child
Fig.P.20e<\/a> woman in yellow<\/p>\n

Rosso’s painting underwent seven months of restoration prior to its appearance in the exhibition “Metodo e Scienza: operativit\u00e0 e ricerca nel restauro” held in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence between 23 June 1982 and 6 January 1983.\u00a0 The reports of the restoration by Umberto Baldini, Gianni Marussich, the restorer of the wood support, and Nicoletta Bracci, the painting restorer who was responsible for the last phase of cleaning and restoring the picture, appear in the catalogue of this exhibition, Baldini, 1982, 96\u201399, Color plates XLVIII\u2013XLIX; repeated in Darragon, 1983, 89\u201392, Figs. 2\u20133, Color plates A\u2013D, where the length of time of the restoration is mentioned, and two other restorers are named, Dr. Ornella Casazza and Paola Bracco, who began the removal of the old repaint.\u00a0 The following is a summary of the three reports.\u00a0 The panel, composed of nine planks, was is bad condition due to the separation of the planks and to splits and breaks in the wood, some of which remain from the damage to the panel inflicted before Rosso painted upon it confirming Vasari\u2019s story about the fall of a roof on the panel as it was being gessoed (see below).\u00a0 The panel is also warped.\u00a0 On the back new crossbars were fitted into the original tracks, and the cracks and fissures were repaired with triangular dowels of poplar.\u00a0 New unenclosed crossbars were added to impede further change of the curvature of the panel.\u00a0 The edges of the panel have not been cut, but the corners have been cut off (on which, see PROVENANCE below).\u00a0 The painted surface of the picture was in a bad state of preservation due to the lifting of paint, to the loss of paint in places, to drastic earlier cleanings, to heavy earlier repainting, to the “wrinkling” of the paint, to dirt, and to the darkening of varnishes of various thicknesses.\u00a0 Some parts of the original surface were irremediably damaged.\u00a0 The cleaning of the picture has now made visible what remains of the original surface.\u00a0 The pictorial surface was consolidated with watercolor in the areas of loss but the abraded areas were left untouched.\u00a0 [The lower half of St. Anne’s face, her neck, and her body above her hands are very much abraded.]\u00a0 The original medium is rich in oil.\u00a0 The all-over ground of the painting is a transparent blackish brown.\u00a0 On this ground the striated pearl gray sky was painted with rapidly applied long and broad brush strokes.\u00a0 The face of the standing figure at the far right is entirely the result of an earlier repainting and was not removed, as was all the other repaint, because nothing of the original was found underneath it and it was thought that what appears may imitate to some extent what Rosso painted here.<\/p>\n

As pointed out by Nicoletta Bracci in her report (see above) the picture is painted on a blackish brown ground.\u00a0 This gives to the painting an all-over penumbra, similar to that of the Sansepolcro Piet\u00e0<\/em>, into which color disappears and from which it appears to rise.\u00a0 The clouds are various values of gray through which the brownish background can be seen.\u00a0 Mary Magdalen at the upper left has a red-orange skirt; the drapery at her left elbow is the same red.\u00a0 Her upper garment is dark and light gray.\u00a0 The Virgin next to her wears dark red drapery on her head.\u00a0 Her dress is violet with a tan belt.\u00a0 The mantle over her legs and falling down her back is dark green (originally blue?).\u00a0 Christ’s flesh is slightly lavender.\u00a0 His drapery is gray green with a gray sash.\u00a0 St. Anne is almost entirely covered by a tan mantle; her sleeves are dark green with white puffs at the elbows.\u00a0 St. Mary the Egyptian wears a gray upper garment with a tan strap; her skirt is pink, turning dark pink and then rose near the bottom; over it is a dark lavender sash.\u00a0 At the bottom, beneath the Magadalen and along the left edge of the painting is a dark brown-black panel; as it seems to have moldings it may be a door frame (Darragon, 1983, 67, saw a door here), otherwise it would be the end section of a wall.\u00a0 To the right of it, and farther back, in brownish monochrome, is a head with a high forehead seen from the front, and what seems to be a second head seen three-quarters from the left.\u00a0 Darragon, 1983, 59, says there is a woman here seen from the back and holding a child; Franklin, 1994, saw a male nude seen from the back.\u00a0 In the foreground at the lower left the black man, seated with his legs spread apart, wears a gray turban with red, blue, and yellow stripes.\u00a0 Over his torso he wears a green shirt.\u00a0 There are folds of white drapery around his upper right arm (also white folds on the other side of his torso where there appears another larger passage of what seems to be the same green drapery as that of his shirt).\u00a0 There is orange drapery over the inner part of his upper thighs, and white drapery over his groin.\u00a0 He wears brown buskins with a dark tan band around his right leg just below the knee.\u00a0 The standing woman with the nude child wears a light gray green turban.\u00a0 Her upper garment is yellow tan worn over gray drapery that is visible at the neck and at the top of her right arm. Her skirt is brown-violet with a violet rose highlight.\u00a0 Immediately to the right of her neck is the full face of a man with large gray moustaches.\u00a0 The lower part of this male figure appears just to the right of the woman’s skirt where can be seen one of his legs covered by an orange-tan buskin with brown bands and with a small piece of dark green drapery above it.\u00a0 The bare chested soldier wears a steely blue helmet with a “gold” piece of decoration on the top.\u00a0 He carries a bundle of gray drapery.\u00a0 One of his bare legs is visible below this drapery.\u00a0 The seated woman next to him wears a tan garment with white folds at the elbows.\u00a0 There is red-orange drapery over her lap, and a piece of light green drapery at her thigh.\u00a0 At her side is a bundle of gray cloth(?) on top of a brown basket(?) out of which projects the heads of chickens and\/or roosters with red combs and wattles.\u00a0 The woman seen from the back wears a dark bluish green mantle over a gray-white dress.\u00a0 She has gray ribbons and strings of pink coral beads in her brown hair.\u00a0 The baby she holds is covered with gray-white material and wears a tight fitting cap.\u00a0 Next to this woman is an old man with a long beard wearing a tall hat (mitre?) with a thin red rim at his forehead.\u00a0 Part of his pink-lavender mantle is visible at his shoulder and at the bottom of the picture.\u00a0 The young man at the far right (whose face is entirely the result of an earlier repainting; see above) has blond curly hair; he wears a light green mantle over bare legs, of which only the right is wholly visible.<\/p>\n

PROVENANCE: Vasari (see below) states that the picture was painted for Citt\u00e0 di Castello, but he does not say for what location.\u00a0 The document of commission of 1528 (see below) specifies that the painting was ordered by the Compagnia del Corpus Domini and for their chapel that was to be built, but the actual location of this chapel is not indicated.\u00a0 Titi, 1686, 384, 442\u2013443, 448 places the picture in the cathedral and in the new chapel of the Holy Sacrament that was consecrated 20 June 1685.\u00a0 This is the large chapel that extends from the middle of the right side of the nave of the church where Rosso’s altarpiece was again placed after its recent restoration.\u00a0 Before this restoration it hung high on the east wall of the chapel that forms the left transept of the cathedral.\u00a0 It seems that this is the chapel that Titi, 1686, 448, identifies as the former chapel of the Holy Sacrament where Rosso’s picture once hung, and hence it would seem the original chapel of the Compagnia del Corpus Domini.\u00a0 This is also implied as the original location of Rosso’s painting in a document of 3 September 1685 (see below), after it had been moved to the new chapel, by the phrase stating that Rosso’s “quadro stava per prima nella cappella del SSmo Sagramento nella chiesa superiore a cornu Evangelii,…” Franklin, 1994, 185, believes the information we have indicates a chapel to the left of the congregation, opposite the still existing sacristy and stairs, suggesting that the altar was in one of the monumental arches of the end [north] or high altar side [east] of the cathedral transept, adding that in the mid-seventeenth century a description places it in the left transept.\u00a0 I think this is the same location that I suggest.\u00a0 Titi, 1686, 448, said that originally the altarpiece was surmounted by a large wood lunette on which was painted, by Salviati, God-the-Father “e due Angioli per parte che l’adorano,” which was then placed above the main door of the cathedral (that is, when the picture was removed from its original frame and placed in the new chapel of the Holy Sacrament).\u00a0 This lunette is lost.\u00a0 In 1789 an earthquake destroyed the dome of the new chapel of the Holy Sacrament (Magherini Graziani, 1897, 40).\u00a0 Giuseppe Andreocci, Breve ragguaglio di ci\u00f2 che in genere di belle arti si contiene di pi\u00f9 prezioso in Citt<\/em>\u00e0 di Castello<\/em>, Arezzo, 1829, 14, states that the painting is still in this chapel.\u00a0 Mancini, 1832, 17, writes that Rosso’s altarpiece is on the wall behind the altar of this chapel.\u00a0 Mannucci, 1878, 141, places it on the altar of the chapel.\u00a0 Between 1879 and 1886 the chapel was restored (Magherini Graziani, 1897, 40).\u00a0 A decade later Magherini Graziani, 1897, 182, refers to Rosso’s altarpiece as hanging on a wall of the tribune but he says he does not know when it was placed in “quells cappella.”\u00a0 It might be assumed that it was moved during the restoration of the chapel of the Holy Sacrament.\u00a0 Amicizia, 1899, 81, speaks of the painting as on the wall to the left of the high altar of the cathedral.\u00a0 Given the plan of the cathedral it is probable that Magherini Graziani and Amicizia are referring to a wall of the left transept, this transept being in fact a chapel and the original chapel of the Compagnia del Corpus Domini that commissioned Rosso’s painting.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 186, thought placing it here may have been an attempt to return it approximately to its original site.\u00a0 It is indicated as in the left transept in Italia Centrale, Guida Breve<\/em>, II, Milan, 1939, 169.\u00a0 And it was here that it hung unframed, and almost invisible, until it was placed once again in the large chapel of the Holy Sacrament in 1983.<\/p>\n

DOCUMENTS: The contract for this picture is preserved in A.S.F., Conv. soppressi, 20, 18 (Filza seconda di memorie della Venerabil Compagania della S.ma Annunziata di Arezzo, 1380\u20131620), fols. 100r<\/sup> and 105v<\/sup>:<\/p>\n

Al nome de Dio Amen. Adi de luglio 1528:<\/p>\n

Sia noto e manifesto a chi legiar\u00e0 overo odir\u00e0 legiare questa presente scripta, come meser Calisto de’Fucci e ser Piertropavolo Pacisordi bench\u00e9 absente, per lo qua’ dicto meser Calisto promette de rato, electi asumpti e deputati da la Compagnia del Corpus Domini sopra a una capella da farse a honore, laude e reverentia de Dio e de la Vergine Maria, con auctorit\u00e0 de rescotere, pagare et de fare tucto quello che fare potesse la dicta Compagnia e quello che per loro se far\u00e0, se haver\u00e0 rato e fermo, come de tucto ne apare instrumento per mano de publico notaro; el dicto messer Calisto d\u00e0 et aloca uno quadro a meser Rosso<\/em> fiorentino depentore per prezo et in nome de prezo de scudi cento cinquanta, a ragione de vinti grossi per scudo; et al presente el dicto meser Calisto, oltra a quello che el dicto meser Rosso<\/em> ha hauto, come apare per suoi bulettini apreso a Giovanpavolo Fondacci depositario; li d\u00e0 con suo bulettino per le mano de dicto depositario scudi vinti, e promette per tutto agosto dare e pagare al dicto meser Rosso<\/em> scudi quindici, e da l\u00ec inderieto scudi dieci per ciascuno mese, finita l’opera, suplire per insino a lo integro pagamento de cento cinquanta scudi, perch\u00e9 lui non dubita mente se rescoteranno; et el dicto meser Calisto con l’aiuto e favore de lo illustre Signore Nicol\u00f2 Vitelli, prometter usare diligentia e soleccitudine a rescotere quanto se poter\u00e0.<\/p>\n

El prefato meser Rosso depentore predicto, promette a tucte sue spese de pescione de casa e de letti e de colori a de tucte l’altre spese al vivere suo necessarie e de tucto quello che bisogniasse; e promette fare bona, suficiente e laudabile opera, come a buono e suficiente depentore e come meglio poter\u00e0 e saper\u00e0, con la figura de uno Cristo resuscitato e glorioso con la figura de la Nostra Donna e con la figura de Sancta Anna, con la figura de Sancta Maria Madalena e con la figura de Sancta Maria Emptiana [=Egiziaca],2<\/sup><\/a> e da basso in dicta tavola pi\u00f9 e diverse figure che denotino e representino el populo, con quelli Angeli che a lui parer\u00e0 de acomodarre; e promette el dicto mastro depentore dare finito el dicto quadro e la dicta opera in fra otto o dieci mesi, o al pi\u00f9 infra uno anno, incomenzando come de sopra e come seguita da finire.<\/p>\n

[fol. 105v<\/sup>]<\/p>\n

Scripta de messer Rosso depentore [in same hand as the contract].3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

In the contract of 24 November 1528 for the frescoes that Rosso was to paint in the church of S. Maria delle Lagrime in Arezzo (see D.31\u2013D.33) it is stated that until they were completed he was not to take on any other work “preter unam tabulam quam ad presens pingit in Civitate Castelli.”<\/p>\n

The following document of 3 September 1685 is transcribed from Mancini, 1832, 19, n. 1.\u00a0 It concerns the cutting off of the four corners of the picture around the time that the altarpiece was moved from its original location to the new chapel of the Holy Sacrament that was consecrated 20 June of that year.<\/p>\n

“A d\u00ec 3.\u00a0 Settembre 1685<\/p>\n

“Fu radunato il solito Capitolo del mese al quale ec. essendo che senza saputa del Capitolo, e Canonici, e niun consenso del Pro-sagrista maggiore sia stato mutilato in pi\u00f9 parti il quadro famoso del Rosso Fiorentino<\/em> che rappresenta la Trasfigurazione<\/em> di<\/em> Cristo<\/em> N.S., il quale quadro stava per prima nella cappella del SSmo Sagramento nella chiesa superiore a cornu Evangelii, et i fragmenti di detto quadro si trovino presso il Sig. Gasparo<\/em>, ed altri Fucci<\/em>; a di pi\u00f9 siano stati anche levati alcuni mascheroncini, e rosette dorate che erano nella cornice del baldacchino che stava sopra l’altar maggiore; e perch\u00e8 tutto questo \u00e8 seguito non solamente con deterioramento del quadro della stima a tutto il mondo nota, e disprezzo de’medesimi Signori Canonici, e Capitolo: pertanto essendo riuscite inutili l’amicabili estanze fatte da pi\u00f9, e diversi a detti Signor Fucci, e ad altri; si \u00e8 risoluto di far procedere civilmente, e criminalmente contro chi has guasto, e segato il quadro, e ritiene detti fragmenti, ed a tal effetto il Sig. Cononico Eleosari<\/em> Sagrista Maggiore con tutte le faccolt\u00e0 necessarie et opportune etiam di sostituire pi\u00f9 Procuratori qui, et in Roma avanti qualsivoglia Giudice competente a far istanza per i danni risultati dalla segatura del quadro, da stimarsi dai Periti ec.”4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

COPIES OF LOST PREPARATORY DRAWINGS:<\/p>\n

Paris, Louvre, Inv. 8781, Study for the seated female saints<\/em> and Munich, Hinrich Sieveking Collection, Study for the seated female saints and for the woman holding a spindle with a child below<\/em> (D.27A, B<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Florence, Uffizi, no. 444S recto<\/em>, Study for the lower half of the altarpiece<\/em> (D.28<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Rennes.\u00a0 (D.26B<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Rome, Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, no. 125607, Study for the lower half of the altarpiece<\/em> (D.29<\/a>).<\/p>\n

See also COPY below.<\/p>\n

LITERATURE:<\/p>\n

\n

Vasari, 1550, 801\u2013802 (Vasari-Ricci, IV, 247, 249) first speaks of the picture immediately after the Borgo Sansepolcro Piet\u00e0<\/em>: “Gli fu fatto in Citt\u00e0 di Castello allogazione di una tavola, laquale volendo lavorare, mentre che s’ingessava le ruin\u00f2 un tetto adosso, che la infranse tutta.\u00a0 Vennegli un mal\u00a0di febbre si bestiale, che ne fu quasi per morire; perilche di Castello si fe portare al Borgo.”\u00a0 Still ill Rosso went from Borgo Sansepolcro to Pieve di S. Stefano, and then to Arezzo.\u00a0 There, on 24 November 1528, he was commissioned a series of frescoes for S. Maria delle Lagrime, the story of which Vasari then recounts.\u00a0 In September 1529 Rosso fled Arezzo because of the war with the Florentines.\u00a0 Here Vasari continues his account of the Citt\u00e0 di Castello picture: “…se n’and\u00f2 al Borgo San Sepolcro…perche quelli che a Castello gli aveva allogato la tavola, volsero che la finisse: e per il male, che avea avuto a Castello, non volle ritornarvi, e cosi al Borgo fin\u00ec la tavola loro.\u00a0 Ne mai a essi volse dare allegrezza di poterla vedere: dove figur\u00f2 un popolo, e un Christo in aria, adorato da quattro figure, e quivi fete Mori, Zingani, e le piu strane cose del mondo: e dale figure in fuori, che di bont\u00e0 son perfette, it componimento attende a ogni altra cosa, che all’animo di coloro, che gli chiesero tale pittura.”<\/p>\n

The same in Vasari, 1568, II, 208\u2013209 (Vasari-Milanesi, V, 163\u2013164, 165\u2013166).<\/p>\n

Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie de’Professori del Disegno<\/em> [Florence, 1681\u20131728], Turin, 1813, III, 293, as representing the transfiguration but from Vasari it is not possible to understand what is intended by the picture (from Darragon, 1983, 78, 80, n. 8 [not found in Baldinucci 1845\u20131975]).<\/p>\n

Titi, 1686, 385, 442\u2013443, as a Transfiguration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lanzi, 1792, 91, as an Ascension<\/em> with a band of gypsies instead of apostles below.<\/p>\n

Lanzi, 1795\u20131796, I, 150 (1852, I, 162), as a Transfiguration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Mancini, 1832, 17, 19, n. 1, says that the two forward figures above appear to be Sibyls, and the two others Enoch and Elijah.<\/p>\n

Mannucci, 1878, 141, as a Transfiguration<\/em> or an Ascension<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Magherini Graziani, 1897, 182\u2013184, 339, Pl. XXXV, publishes the document of 1528 and remarks that the figure of Christ is imitated from Raphael’s.<\/p>\n

Amicizia, 1899, as a Transfiguration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Goldschmidt, 1911, 23\u201324, as falsely called a Transfiguration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Voss, 1920, 188, as the so-called Transfiguration<\/em> and as showing how deeply Roman grandness had influenced Rosso.<\/p>\n

Friedlaender, 1925, 81, ns. 1\u20132 (1957, 37\u201338, ns. 1\u20132, Fig. 17).<\/p>\n

Colnaghi, 1928, 237, as begun as a Resurrection<\/em> and then changed to a Transfiguration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Pevsner, 1928, 30, as the so-called Transfiguration<\/em> and as showing Roman influence.<\/p>\n

Friedlaender, 1929, 224, Fig. 4 (1957, 59, Fig. 17), as a paraphrase of the Transfiguration<\/em> and as intellectual, symbolic, odd, and mannerist.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1931, 34, 36\u201338, 127, 191, ns. 104\u2013106, Pl. XXVII, as falsely called the Transfiguration<\/em>; he says that Rosso went to Sansepolcro in September 1529 to finish it. Related to the Sansepolcro Piet\u00e0<\/em> but that the Christ recalls Raphael’s in his Disputa<\/em>.\u00a0 Kusenberg also remarks that it was the only picture in the cathedral but gives no source for this statement.<\/p>\n

Venturi, IX, 5, 1932, 195, 196, 215\u2013216, 218, Fig. 123, 230, calls it both a Transfiguration<\/em> and a Resurrection<\/em>, and speaks of it as Michelangelesque, as influenced by Rome, and as again close to Pontormo, recalling his paintings at the Certosa.\u00a0 Above he sees two grave sibyls and two other women.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1935, 62.<\/p>\n

Carlo Gamba in the Enciclopedia italiana<\/em>, XXX, 1936, 156, calls it a “Gloria di Cristo<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Mostra el Cinquecento<\/em>, 1940, 66, as a Transfiguration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Salmi, 1940, 80, as a Transfiguration<\/em>, inspired by Raphael and Peruzzi, the woman in the left foreground recalling the latter’s Sibyl in the Fontegiusta fresco.<\/p>\n

Becherucci, 1944, 30\u201331, as related to the Sansepolcro Piet\u00e0<\/em>, with the figure of Christ related to Pontormo’s in his Ascension<\/em> at the Certosa [she must mean the Resurrection<\/em>].\u00a0 On the basis of this similarity she proposes trips by Rosso to Florence in these years.<\/p>\n

Barocchi, 1950, 70\u201376, 246, as compositionally related to Raphael’s Transfiguration<\/em>, but also influenced by Peruzzi and D\u00fcrer.<\/p>\n

Shearman, 1957, I, 247, II, 229f., n. 73.<\/p>\n

Becherucci, [1958] 1968, 458, as showing Rosso’s inspiration seeming to flag.<\/p>\n

Rosini, 1961, 53, as the so-called Transfiguration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1961, 450, 451, Figs. 10\u201312, 453, discusses a drawing in Rome [D.29<\/a>]\u00a0and one in Florence [D.28<\/a>], and in n. 18 another in Paris [D.27A<\/a>],\u00a0 that are related to an early conception of Rosso’s picture conceived before the accident Vasari describes.<\/p>\n

Smyth, 1962, 22; 1963, 191\u2013192; 1992, 79\u201380, and Fig. 57 (before cleaning), as showing precedents for maniera<\/em> in the two new flat figures, in the upper corners, showing two twists of direction.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1963, 194, Pl. 1471.<\/p>\n

Shearman, 1963, 210, n. 39, refers to Lanzi’s phrase that Rosso’s picture has “alquanto di stravangante” as meaning “manierismo.”<\/p>\n

Forlani, [1964], 169, under no. 34.<\/p>\n

Hirst, 1964, 121, and n. 8. mentions the document of 1528 and transcribes part of it to indicate that the picture is not a Transfiguration<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1964 (1976), I, Bk. I, 176\u2013183, 212\u2013215, Bk. II, 145\u2013147, P. 23, II, Bk. II1 277\u2013290, under D. 26 and D. 27, Bk. III, Fig. 94.<\/p>\n

Hauser, 1965, 194, as vividly expressing the sense of crisis, insecurity and fear of these years, but also as a picture that has more art-historical importance than artistic merit.<\/p>\n

Borea, 1965, as Michelangelesque through Pontormo, especially his Deposition<\/em> in S. Felicita, indicating that between 1527 and 1530 Rosso visited Florence.<\/p>\n

Shearman, 1966, 169, n. 19, indicates the subject as given in the contract of 1528 and mentions that the picture shows Christ with other figures including the Three Maries, the first witnesses on earth of the Resurrection.\u00a0 He also points out that the commission may have been given to Rosso through the intervention of Bishop Leonardo Tornabuoni who seems to have become governor of Citt\u00e0 di Castello in 1527.<\/p>\n

Freedberg, 1966, 583, as a Resurrection<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1966, 168, 173.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1967, 303.<\/p>\n

Frommel, 1967, 146, discussed the influence of Rosso’s picture on Peruzzi’s Augustus and the Sibyl<\/em> fresco.<\/p>\n

Freedberg, 1971, 131\u2013132, 485, n. 34, as a Resurrection<\/em>, and as having something of an introversion created by provincial isolation.<\/p>\n

Sinding-Larsen, 1974, 84, 115\u2013115, as showing “not a suffering Christ… but rather… an unambiguously triumphant Christ… [demonstrating] unmistakably the antithesis between sacrifice and glory.”<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1975, 19.<\/p>\n

Nyholm, 1977, 16, Fig. 79, as uncleaned and impossible to see.<\/p>\n

Cuzin, 1977, 22, 58, n. 37, states that the woman in the foreground seen from the back has the characteristics of a gypsy (boh\u00e9mienne): a cape knotted at the shoulder, an ample gathered dress, a calf-length skirt, bare feet, a large turban, and a child in her arms.\u00a0 However, the figure does not actually wear a turban.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1978, 28.<\/p>\n

Evelina Borea, in Primato del disegno<\/em>, 1980, 191, no. 453.<\/p>\n

Parronchi, 1980, 37, Fig. 4, 62\u201364, wrote of the “dimenticati” who are depicted and of the contract that gave to Rosso the selection of the people represented.<\/p>\n

Alessandro Parronchi, in Baldini, 1982, 97\u201398, believes that the meaning of the picture is “il Cristo risorto che si presenta alle creature che ha pi\u00f9 amato…proprio il mondo degli umili e dei dimenticati,…”<\/p>\n

Elam,\u00a01982, 720, 722, Fig. 85, pointed out Parronchi’s interesting suggestion that we “must contend with the fact that one [of the figures] is a bishop, while another has an elaborately jeweled coiffure.”<\/p>\n

Chastel, in Daragon, 1983, 6, as a Transfiguration<\/em> and as an “anti-chef-d’oeuvre.”<\/p>\n

Daragon, 1983, 11, 19\u201325, 27\u201328, 32, 48\u201382, Figs. 2\u20133. Color Pls. A\u2013D, discusses the painting at length; he recognizes the woman seen from the back and the old man with moustaches as gypsies, and believes that the woman is reading the palm of the woman with the basket of chickens; the soldier he identifies as the centurion that recognized Christ’s divinity.\u00a0 He sees the picture as a meditation on the mystery of the Redemption that is normally placed in the liturgy of Maundy Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sinding-Larsen, 1984, 114, discusses in general the difficulty in determining the artist’s share in liturgical iconography, noting specifically in regard to the text of Rosso’s commission that “it would be extremely risky to take such a contract at its face value.”<\/p>\n

Wilmes, 1985, 65, 68, 74, 78\u201379, 84\u201385, 15, 162\u2013165, 168\u2013169, 175, Fig. 37.<\/p>\n

Rosini, 1986, Color Pls. IV\u2013VI, 207\u2013209.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1987, 25, 29, 34\u201335, n. 67.<\/p>\n

Davis, 1988, 201, mentioned in relation to the Allegory on the Birth of Christ<\/em>\u00a0[D.72<\/a>; E.81<\/a>].<\/p>\n

Ciardi and Mugnaini, 1991, 27, 111, 124, 128\u2013133, no. 25, with 4 Color Pls., 150, Christ in a mandorla showing a gothic quality.<\/p>\n

Hall, 1992, 155, 156, Fig. 52, as a “Transfiguration” and as showing the taste for chiaroscuro acquired in Rome.<\/p>\n

Lebenztejn, 1992, 279.<\/p>\n

Franklin, 1994, 30, 79, 87, 145, 166, 175, 177, 184\u2013209, 227, 234, 255, 257\u2013258, 260, 275, 310, Appendix G, DOCUMENTS 1\u20132, 316, Color Pls. 147, 164, as showing the Risen Christ in Glory, and interpreting from the “popolo” indicated in the contract that Rosso was to depict the People of Citt\u00e0 di Castello which, however, do not appear in the altarpiece but rather a cross section of people, a change that may be related to Vasari’s comment that Rosso had not fulfilled his patrons’ wishes and that may have disturbed the members of the confraternity.<\/p>\n

Brilli, 1994, 26, 132, Color Pl., 133, 135, comments that the woman with the chickens is having her palm read by the gypsy seen from the back.<\/p>\n

Falciani, in Gnocchi and Falciani, 1994, 16, 56, Color Fig., 57.<\/p>\n

Marchetti Letta, 1994, 62, 73, 74, Color Pl. 99, as showing a crowd of common people below, and failing to comply with the expectations of those who ordered it, also as related to Masaccio’s Tribute Money<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ciardi, 1994, 25, 28, 29, Fig., 41, 80, 81, Fig., 94, n. 103, the lower zone related to Masaccio’s Distribution<\/em> fresco, and showing a relationship to Parmigianino’s Vision of St. Jerome<\/em> that Rosso could have seen in Rome, and with analogies with the same artist’s Madonna<\/em> in Dresden.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The picture has always been recognized as Rosso’s and identified with the painting that Vasari says Rosso made for Citt\u00e0 di Castello.\u00a0 Commissioned on 1 July 1528, possibly through the intervention of Leonardo Tornabuoni,5<\/sup><\/a> its design was probably begun shortly thereafter.\u00a0 Franklin (1994, 187\u2013188, 310, Appendix: G, DOCUMENT 1) discovered a document of 12 June 1528 referring to money for what must be the picture that Rosso eventually painted with indication of deliberations going back to 21 February 1528.\u00a0 It is possible then that Rosso was unofficially approached before the date of the contract, even before he completed the Borgo Sansepolcro altarpiece, a possibility supported, according to Franklin, by the fact that Rosso was paid 20 scudi immediately upon the making of the contract on 1 July.\u00a0 Several studies for it (see above) apparently made at the beginning of his work on the project show a composition somewhat different from the one that was later executed.\u00a0 The panel was prepared in Citt\u00e0 di Castello and then, according to Vasari, while it was being gessoed, the roof fell in and damaged it (“la infranse tutta”); The examination of the panel during its recent restoration (see above) revealed the damage inflicted at that time.\u00a0 Becoming ill, Rosso first went to Borgo Sansepolcro and then to Pieve di Santo Stefano to recuperate, moving from there to Arezzo where, on 24 November 1528, he was commissioned to do a series of frescoes for S. Maria delle Lagrime in that town (D.31\u2013D.33<\/a>).\u00a0 What may be assumed is that Rosso’s early designs for the Christ in Glory<\/em> were made in the summer and possibly in the early autumn of 1528.\u00a0 The project was then abandoned until Rosso fled from the war in Arezzo, probably in September 1529, and returned to Borgo Sansepolcro.6<\/sup><\/a> It was there, rather than in Citt\u00e0 di Castello, to which he did not wish to return because he had been ill in that town, that he painted the Christ in Glory<\/em>, on the original panel that would have been sent to Sansepolcro.\u00a0 On Maundy Thursday, 14 April 1530, Rosso, according to Vasari, 1568, 209 (Vasari-Milanesi, V, 166) got into a fight with a priest in the cathedral and this precipitated his departure from Borgo Sansepolcro. Again according to Vasari, “finita la tavola di Castello, senza curarsi del lavoro d’Arezzo,” Rosso fled to Venice. Vasari’s wording would seem to indicate that by Maundy Thursday the Christ in Glory<\/em> was finished.<\/p>\n

The subject of the picture has been a matter of some controversy.\u00a0 Titi, in 1685, called it a Transfiguration<\/em>.\u00a0 Lanzi at first thought it represented the Ascension<\/em>, then the Transfiguration. Mancini thought it might be either. Colnaghi suggested it was begun as a Resurrection<\/em> and then changed into a Transfiguration<\/em>.\u00a0 Recently it has been considered more in terms of a Resurrection<\/em> although as late as 1983 Chastel called in the Transfiguration<\/em>.\u00a0 Shearman thought it showed the three Maries who first discovered Christ’s Resurrection.\u00a0 However, the contract of 1528 states that the women who were to be depicted with Christ are the Virgin Mary, St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalen, and St. Mary the Egyptian.\u00a0 The latter, a third or fifth century courtesan, was not a witness to the Resurrection.\u00a0 In Rosso’s painting the two young women above must be, at the far left the Magdalen, dressed in red, at the far right, St. Mary the Egyptian, with a bare back (Darragon, 1983, 58, believes that the head of an animal on the band that crosses her back identifies her as an Egyptian; Franklin, 1994, 196\u2013187, identifies it as a lion, the animal that dug her grave).\u00a0 The second woman from the left would have to be the Virgin, and the third, who is old, must be St. Anne. \u00a0The contract calls for the figure of Christ “resusciato\u00a0 glorioso” with these female saints, and below “pi\u00f9 e diverse figure che denotino e representino el populo.”\u00a0 This does, in fact, seem to be what Rosso painted, a diverse group of people who would seem to represent the people of the world.\u00a0 Franklin (see above) thought the contract would have meant the People of Citt\u00e0 di Castello.\u00a0 Although the picture shows Christ “resuscitated” and “glorious,” the painting does not depict the episodes of the Resurrection, the Transfiguration, or the Ascension. Gamba called it a “Gloria di Cristo<\/em>” and this seems to be appropriate.\u00a0 Baldini titles it “Cristo risorto in Gloria<\/em>” which is directly related to what the document of 1528 specifies. Darragon calls it “Christ en gloire<\/em>.”\u00a0 Franklin refers to Christ with wounds as in a resurrected state, the picture showing the glorification of Christ’s body related to the Christian doctrine of the Corpus Domini.\u00a0 Christ is depicted alive after the Resurrection, with his torso, hands, and feet showing his wounds. Here is presented the Corpus Domini, to which was dedicated the compagnia<\/em> for whom Rosso painted his picture.\u00a0 With the Virgin and St. Anne, the purity of Christ’s lineage seems indicated, in contrast to the two beautiful courtesans whose saintliness so obviously results from their having overcome their sins of the flesh.\u00a0 Christ\u2014the Corpus Domini\u2014is presented as the Saviour of the world, and the population of that world is shown below.\u00a0 The Virgin by her gesture recommends that population to Christ.<\/p>\n

The copies of one early drawing for the altarpiece (D.27A, B<\/a>) show two of the female saints nude to the waist, as is the woman with a spindle below.\u00a0 There is some possibility that this lost drawing presents evidence of two levels of a three tiered composition in which Christ would have been above the closely grouped seated saints.\u00a0 The contract called for “angeli” that seem nowhere to be found in the finished altarpiece.\u00a0 Vasari related not only that Rosso did not want to return to Citt\u00e0 di Castello, where he had gotten ill, to execute the picture, but also that while painting it in Borgo Sansepolcro he would not allow his patrons to see it.\u00a0 Vasari continued that “dalle figure in fuori, che di bont\u00e0 son perfette, il componimento attende a ogni altra cosa, che all’animo di coloro che gli chiesero tale pittura.” There seems to have been some ill will between Rosso and his patrons, but what he gave them that was not what they wanted is not certain.\u00a0 Vasari suggested it was the motley group below including “mori, zingani, e le pi\u00f9 strane cose del mondo.”\u00a0 The inclusion of angels might have provided some traditional satisfaction, as well as might clearer indication of just what is taking place amongst that “popolo.”\u00a0 Not to mention what kind “popolo” it is in the first place, the appearance of the turbaned black man at the lower left\u2014one of Vasari’s “mori”\u2014indicating that these are not the citizens of Citt\u00e0 di Castello, if this is what was wanted.\u00a0 Perhaps the patrons wanted something more along the lines of a three-tiered Transfiguration, the implications of which continue to assert their effect on Rosso’s two-level scene, so much so that the picture was often thought to represent this subject.\u00a0 The confraternity celebrated the feast of Corpus Domini at its altar not only on Maundy Thursday but also on the feast of the Transfiguration, 6 August.7<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

COPY: Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, no. A2135, Copy(?) of the figures of the Magdalen and the Virgin <\/em>(Fig.P.20Copy, Amsterdam<\/a>), pen(?) and point of brush and ink, and wash over black chalk; inscribed in ink at the upper left: Campagnolo<\/em>; watermark, a bow, near to Briquet 744; three collectors’ marks on the detached backing: Lugt 2228 or 2228a (Rijksmuseum), 2135? (Rembrandt Society, Amsterdam), and a third with FLV.<\/em> set in an oval.\u00a0 Although this sixteenth century drawing could be merely a copy of the two saints at the upper left of Rosso’s painting certain details suggest that it might instead go back to a lost drawing made for the picture.\u00a0 While the drapery is carefully done like that in the painting it does not absolutely correspond to the latter.\u00a0 Nor does the hair of the Magdalen correspond to that in the painting.\u00a0 However, it is similar to the hair in Rosso’s Throne of Solomon<\/em>, in Bayonne, done in 1529 (D.34<\/a>).\u00a0 It also resembles the hair of the same figure in the copy of a lost drawing for the picture in the Louvre, Inv. 8781 (D.27A<\/a>)\u00a0 Furthermore, the draughtsmanship of the Amsterdam sheet, removed as it is from Rosso’s, does somewhat resemble that of his Throne of Solomon<\/em>, and of his Design for a Tomb<\/em>, in the British Museum, of 1539 or 1540 (D.81<\/a>). If it does copy a lost drawing that drawing would probably have been done late in 1529 when Rosso again started working on the picture.\u00a0 The clothing of the women is as it is in the painting and not as it appears in the copy of the early drawing in the Louvre.\u00a0 However, it is possible that the Amsterdam drawing is copied from the painting and that the differences between them is due to the diminished visibility of the upper part of the picture to the draughtsman standing in front of it.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>1<\/sup>See Baldini, 1982, 96, 98.<\/p>\n

<\/a>2<\/sup> Gino Corti informed me that “Emptiana” may be derived from the old Italian word “emtizio” meaning “bought,” coming from the Latin “emptio,” signifying a purchase, hence perhaps signifying here a prostitute, the original occupation of St. Mary the Egyptian.\u00a0 Such may be indicated by the bare back of this saint with a book at the far right of the top of Rosso’s painting.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 197, noted the inappropriateness of the book inasmuch as the saint could not read, and identified the animal head’s ornament that Darragon pointed out (1983, 58) on the belt the saint wears as a lion’s head, related to the lion that dug the saint’s grave.<\/p>\n

<\/a>3<\/sup> First published by Magherini Graziani, 1987 (see below); also by Darragon, 1983 (see below), and Franklin, 1994, 188, 288, n. 32 310, Appendix G, DOCUMENT 1; Franklin, following Hirst, 1964, 121\u2013122, pointed out that it is Rosso’s own personal copy of the contract left behind when he fled Arezzo in 1529.<\/p>\n

<\/a>4<\/sup> See also Franklin, 1994, 186, and 288, n. 17, where the location of the document, not recorded by Mancini, is given as: Archivio Vescovile nell’Archivio Seminarile di San Girolamo di Citt\u00e0 di Castello, vol. 164, fols. 187v<\/sup>\u2013188r<\/sup>.\u00a0 Contrary to Daragon, 1983, 77, it does not seem that the stolen “mascheroncini” and “rosette dorate” mentioned in this document belonged to the frame of Rosso’s picture as they are said to have been taken from the baldachin of the high altar of the church where Rosso’s painting is not known ever to have been placed.\u00a0 This was also noted by Franklin, 1994, 188, 288, n. 33, who commented that it is not known if Rosso was responsible for the lost frame of his picture, likely made of wood, which still existed in 1689 framing an altarpiece by Simone Nelli da Citerna in the Seeminary of Citt\u00e0 di Castello (Archivio Capitolari nell’Archivio Seminarile di San Girolamo di Citt\u00e0 di Castello, MS LXVI, fol. 32v<\/sup>).<\/p>\n

<\/a>5<\/sup> According to Shearman (1966, 169, n. 19). M. G. Muzi, in his Memorie civile di Citt<\/em>\u00e0 di Castello<\/em>, II, Citt\u00e0 di Castello, 1844, 109, says that Leonardo Tornabuoni was made Governor of Citt\u00e0 di Castello in 1527, but P. Litta, in his Celebri famiglie italiane<\/em>, III, fasc. xxxvi, tav. 2, gives the date 1529, which Shearman judges less authoritative.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 187, 288, n. 22, states that Muzi’s date is a typographical error and should read 1529, the actual date of the papal bull being 25 May 1529; Tornabuoni succeeded to the post 25 June 1529.\u00a0 Thus it can only be a suggestion that Tornabuoni aided Rosso to obtain the commission in 1528.\u00a0 Rosso painted his Dead Christ<\/em> in Boston (P.18) for Tornabuoni who was the Bishop of Borgo Sansepolcro where Rosso painted his Piet\u00e0<\/em> of 1527\u20131528.\u00a0 It was also in Sansepolcro that Rosso eventually painted the altarpiece for Citt\u00e0 di Castello.\u00a0 Vasari, 1568, 208, says that Rosso was “amicissimo” with Tornabuoni, so we might assume that if the latter was in a position to help Rosso in 1528 he probably did.\u00a0 Franklin stated that the influence of Tornabuoni must be viewed with caution but cannot be dismissed altogether.<\/p>\n

<\/a>6<\/sup> Rosso probably fled Arezzo shortly after 18 September 1529 when the Prince of Orange began to take over the city and to take the possessions of the Florentines.\u00a0 One might assume that Rosso was gone by the time that the Florentines in the citadel began firing on Arezzo on 12 November.\u00a0 See G. S. Sezanne, Arezzo illustrata memorie istoriche, letterarie e artistiche<\/em>, Florence, 1858, 92\u201394.<\/p>\n

<\/a>7<\/sup> See Franklin, 1994, 186.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1528; 1529\u20131530 Citt\u00e0 di Castello, Cathedral. Panel (poplar), 345 x 2581 (the four corners cut, see below). Fig.P.20a Fig.P.20b bw Fig.P.20c woman in blue Fig.P.20d bw, Moor, child Fig.P.20e woman in yellow Rosso’s painting underwent seven months of restoration prior to its appearance in the exhibition “Metodo e Scienza: operativit\u00e0 e ricerca nel restauro” held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":814,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-878","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11525,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/878\/revisions\/11525"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}