Cesare Magni

Anonymous sale, Paris, Drouot-Richelieu, 16 December 1994, lot 50 (as North Italian School, late 16th century).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has not been cleaned for many years. The lining is old and the frame is also certainly old. The original canvas is joined vertically through the center of the composition. This join is slightly visible, but the old lining still seems to be sufficient in general. Despite the fact that the work is dirty, the condition throughout is visibly very good. There are restorations down the original canvas join, in a vertical break in the sky, in the upper right, and in a few other places that are quite visible to the naked eye. There is a small puncture which has been restored in the lower left. However, apart from these, there are very few noticeable restorations. Therefore, this is a picture that can be cleaned without fear of revealing a compromised paint layer.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The painting, as Marco Tanzi was the first to observe, is an important addition to Cesare Magni's oeuvre and a fascinating visual representation of painting in Lombardy in the early 1530s. Magni is perhaps better known as one of the 'Leonardeschi', and although this canvas does display some Leonardesque tendencies – in particular the physiognomy of the Madonna and the rocky landscape background – its overriding influences are to be found in other Lombard or Piedmontese painters, such as Bramantino and Gaudenzio Ferrari.

The attribution to Magni, as first proposed by Tanzi, is most convincing when one compares the Pietà to Magni's Crucifixion with Saints (the 'Pala del vescovo Pietra') which was painted for the Duomo in Vigevano in 1533-34 and donated by Francesco II Sforza, son of Ludovico il Moro, on 10 March 1534 (see fig. 1).¹  The mountainous landscape is essentially the same in both works and Magni's incredible attention to detail in the foreground is also perfectly illustrated in both paintings. Also employed in commissions for the same church in Vigevano were: Bernardino Gatti, called il Sojaro, who painted a Christ the Redeemer between the Virgin and Saint John the Baptist and a Last Supper; and Gaudenzio Ferrari, also documented there in 1533-34 though his painting of Pentecost for the Duomo is lost.²  In the light of this, a date of circa 1533-34 seems plausible for this Pietà and it is unsurprising to see so many echoes of Gaudenzio's own style, in particular in the figures of the angels supporting the dead Christ.

The painting is accompanied by a detailed study carried out by Dott. Marco Tanzi, to whom we are grateful.

1. See M.T. Fiorio, "Cesare Magni", in I leonardeschi. L'eredità di Leonardo in Lombardia, Milan 1998, reproduced fig. 277.
2. One can only assume that Magni would have seen Gaudenzio's Pentecost before his death in 1534. For Gatti's paintings and the works for the Duomo in Vigevano see R. Sacchi, Il disegno incompiuto. La politica artistica di Francesco II Sforza e di Massimiliano Stampa, Milan 2005, vol. I, pp. 209-216, reproduced vol. II, figs. 35-37.