Lot 308
  • 308

Daniele Crespi

Estimate
120,000 - 160,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Daniele Crespi
  • The flagellation of Christ
  • oil on canvas

Condition

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. The restoration to this work is quite good. Under ultraviolet light, one can see isolated spots of retouching in the lighter colors of the figure attending to cracks and the odd spot of loss, most noticeably in his right hip, lower abdomen and in his right chest. Isolated retouches can be seen elsewhere, but none of any real note. The canvas has a fairly recent glue lining. The work should be hung in its current condition.
"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."

Catalogue Note

This Flagellation of Christ is one of two known versions, the other is the Prado, Madrid (inv. no. P120).1  There are numerous variations between the two pictures; the most important is the  change in position of the executioner on the left.  In our version, his arm is raised to strike whereas in the picture in Spain, he leans forward to tie Christ’s hands.  Daniele Crespi often treated the subject of the suffering Christ.  The earliest version is probably an Ecce Homo in a private collection; a Flagellation  in Warsaw is also thought to date from the early 1620s.2  Yet another Flagellation, now in Austin, is somewhat later, and the picture in Madrid is dated around 1625 by Giulio Bora, Andrea Spiriti and Alessandro Morandotti, whereas Neilson proposed a date towards 1627-29.3

A date for this composition in the second half of the 1620s is surely correct.  Both versions of the Flagellation are clearly part of Daniele’s move from the stylistic exaggerations of the early 1620s, under the influence of his masters, Giovanni Battista Crespi, called Cerano and Giulio Cesare Procaccini, to the more classical, balanced modes of the Bolognese, even  Rubensian, Seicento. We should note that the features of Christ in the present Flagellation are more refined than those in the Spanish version.  As such, they reflect the handling in the altarpiece Christ in Glory with Nine Saints of 1628 in the Certosa at Pavia or the figure of the Resurrected Christ at Garegnano, a fresco finished in 1629. This might suggest a date towards the end of the 1620s.4

Nancy Ward Neilson

1.  N.W. Neilson, Daniele Crespi, Soncino 1996, pp. 30-31, cat. no. 12, reproduced fig. 28B (oil on panel, 120 x 100 cm.).
2.  Ibid., pp. 60-61,  cat. no. 58,  reproduced fig. 5B and p. 59,  cat. no. 54, reproduced fig. 5C.
3.  G. Bora, in Capolavori della Suida-Manninig Collection, exhibition catalogue, Cremona 2001, p. 54, cat. no. I.8, reproduced; Andrea Spiriti, “Daniele Crespi: la conquista del classicismo”, in Daniele Crespi. Un grande pittore del Seicento lombardo, exhibition catalogue, Busto Arsizio 2006, p. 44; Alessandro Morandotti, in Milano-Genova. Andata/ritorno. Percorsi della pittura tra Manierismo e Barocco, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2012, p. 36.
4.  N.W. Neilson, op. cit, pp. 52-53, cat. no. 47, reproduced fig. 33 and pp. 31-35, reproduced fig. 47.