PROPERTY FROM THE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS, SOLD TO BENEFIT THE ACQUISITIONS FUND *

SANTI DI TITO (Borgo Sansepolcro 1536-1603 Florence)

The Deposition

Details

SANTI DI TITO (Borgo Sansepolcro 1536-1603 Florence)
The Deposition
signed 'SANTI DI TITO TITI F' (lower right)
oil on panel, unframed
69¾ x 69¼ in. (177.1 x 176 cm.)

Provenance

Acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1968 through the John R. van Derlip Fund.

Literature

E.R. Mandle, 'A Deposition of Christ by Santi di Tito', The Minneapolis Institute of Art Bulletin, LVII, 1968, pp. 48-50.
European Paintings from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, New York, 1971, pp. 412-413.
J. Spalding, Santi di Tito, Ph.D. dissertation, New York and London, 1982, pp. 389-390, no. 45, fig. 72.

Sale room notice

Please note the present lot is to be sold framed.

Lot Essay

In his dissertation (loc. cit.), Spalding dates the present painting to around 1588. He notes that Santi di Tito appears to have derived elements for it from preliminary drawings now in the Uffizi, Florence (U773F & U771F) that had been executed as preparatory studies for the Crucifixion of circa 1588 in Santa Croce, but which were then abandoned by the artist in relation to that composition.

Like the artist's Lamentation in Pisa dated by Spalding to 1575-1585, the present painting displays the same treatment of the halo and very similar wounds to Christ's side. The nails in the foreground also appear in the Pisan Lamentation and in the paintings of the Pieta in Scrofiano and in the Accademia, Venice.

The motif of the swooning Madonna may derive from Barocci's Deposition in the Cathedral, Perugia of 1567-1569 (see fig. 1).

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