Lot 78: Vincenzo Civerchio (Crema c. 1470-1544)

The Crucifixion with the Madonna and Saint John the Evangelist oil on panel 191/4 x 133/4 in. (49 x 35 cm.) PROVENANCE Freiherr von Kleist, Schloss Hard bei Ermatinger; sale Galerie Fischer, Zurich, 18 May 1933, one of lot 1268, as 'Ercole Roberto' (2,000 francs to the father of the present owner). LITERATURE A. De Marchi, 'Qualche spunto per Zenale e Civerchio', Nuovi Studi, II, no. 4, 1979, pp. 133 and 139, fig. 171. NOTES Primarily active in Brescia and Crema, Civerchio was strongly influenced by Vincenzo Foppa, with whom both Vasari and Lomazzo confused him in their artists' biographies. This Crucifixion reveals Civerchio's appreciation of the austere, powerful works of Foppa. Andrea de Marchi, who first attributed the present picture to Civerchio, regards it as an early work by the artist ( loc. cit., p. 133). He points out that not only does the barren, rocky landscape recall the engravings of Andrea Mantegna, but that also the profile of Saint John the Evangelist, whose open mouth expresses his extreme grief, is a direct reference to the same figure in Mantegna's engraving of The Entombment (see R. Lightbown, Mantegna, no. 227a).