Lot Essay
Orazio Borgianni, a painter active in Rome and Spain in the first years of the 17th century, ventured into printmaking at the very end of his career, producing a set of 52 plates after Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican Logge. He only created two single plates, a Saint Christopher (B. 53) and the present Lamentation, which he dedicated to the Spanish Ambassador in Rome, Francisco Ruiz de Castro Andrade y Portugal, who owned a painting by Borgianni of the subject. While several painted versions survive, it is not known with any certainty which of them belonged to Castro, and none seems to relate directly to the print. The compact, frontal composition with a strongly foreshortened perspective is reminiscent of Mantegna's Lamentation in the Brera in Milan. The chiaroscuro effect emphasizes the figure of Christ and leaves the mourners in the shade, thus concentrating our gaze onto the lifeless body and drawing us into this austere and mournful scene.
See M. Bury, The Print in Italy 1550-1620, London, 2001, p. 84-85, no. 47.
See M. Bury, The Print in Italy 1550-1620, London, 2001, p. 84-85, no. 47.