Giovanni de' Busi, called Cariani

Private collection, Belgium.

Bitonto, Galleria Nazionale della Puglia, Tiziano, Bordon e gli Acquaviva d'Aragona, 15 December 2012 – 8 April 2013.

A. Donati in N. Barbone Pugliese, A. Donati, L. Puppi, Tiziano, Bordon e gli Acquaviva d'Aragona, exhibition catalogue, 2012, pp. 244–47, cat. no. 4, reproduced.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Giovanni de Busi, Cariani. Christ carrying the Cross. This painting has a comparatively recent lining, perhaps from the mid 20th century, with a stretcher of that period, however there has been no cleaning or disturbance of accumulated old varnishes for a century or two. There is a horizontal seam crossing by the shoulders and possibly other little brief horizontal creases in the upper right background, with another short horizontal tear or scratch above the seam in the left background. The head appears to be in good intact condition, with a beautifully preserved ringlet of hair by the neck if faint wear in the crown of thorns on the forehead. The thick old varnishes are opaque to ultra violet light and the chest may perhaps have some past wear and strengthening in places, however the deep madder drapery looks as though it has remained finely intact, and the painting has clearly not been touched for many years. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
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Born near Bergamo, Cariani moved to Venice by 1509, where his style was formed under the influence of Sebastiano del Piombo. Following Sebastiano's departure for Rome in 1511, Cariani fell under the sway of Titian. In August 1517 he returned to Bergamo, where he remained until he went back to Venice in 1523, absorbing the influence of Lorenzo Lotto, and rapidly reforming his own style.

This painting is a recent discovery, and a significant addition to Cariani's œuvre. As Donati noticed, Christ's head is very similar to that in a three-quarter length portrait of a beardless unidentified young man by Cariani at Chatsworth (see fig. 1), and it is likely that Cariani used the sitter as his model here. The Chatsworth portrait is generally dated circa 1516–17, and a similar dating is indicated for the present work. It thus falls at the end of Cariani's first sojourn in Venice, or possibly at the very beginning of his Bergamasque intermezzo. In style it is a summation of his Venetian experience, combining the diverging strands of post-Giorgionismo: Sebastiano's more austere, classicizing style with Titian's lusher, more elegiac style.