Pilate washing his hands - a fragment

This roundel was first published by Federico Zeri in 1966, who placed it within a series of panels depicting the Stories of the Passion, which he attributed to Antonio della Corna (active Padua 1469-1491). The group of panels includes: The Last Supper and The Betrayal of Christ (formerly in the Spiridon collection, Rome), Christ before Annas (formerly on the art market, Milan), Christ before Caiaphas (Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, inv. no. 37.481), The Crucifixion (University Art Museum, Princeton), Christ before Pilate (Museo di Palazzo d’Arco, Mantua), and Christ washing the feet of the Apostles (Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 1997, lot 124).

In 1995, Alessandro Galli instead proposed that the group be attributed to an anonymous artist inspired by Mantegna’s Mantuan period, whom he designated the Master of the Palazzo d’Arco (loc. cit.). Another work attributed to the Master, The Lamentation in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt (inv. no. 1698), bears an inscription on the reverse that Andrea De Marchi identifies as naming the artist: the Carmelite monk and humanist Fra Battista Spagnoli (1447-1516).