.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Born into a family of artists that included Palma il Vecchio and Bonifazio Veronese, Palma il Giovane enjoyed a long and distinguished career. His precocious talent was recognized by Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, who summoned the young artist to his court when he saw a fifteen-year-old Palma copying Titian’s Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence in 1564. It is thought he went to Pesaro and then to Rome, where he stayed for around eight years, returning to Venice in 1574 and possibly working in the studio of Titian. After the latter’s death, Palma was tasked with completing Titian’s unfinished Pietà (now Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia), a sign of the high regard in which he was held; Palma proudly inscribed the picture `QUOD TITIANVS INCHOATVM RELIQUIT PALMA REVERENTVR ABSOLVIT DEOQ. DICAVIT OPVS' (What Titian left unfinished, Palma reverently completed, dedicating the work to God), seemingly identifying himself in the process as the heir apparent to Titian’s supremacy in the city. Key commissions followed shortly after in the 1580s, including the great oval Venice crowned by Victory for the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in the Doge’s Palace and the cycle for the sacristy of San Giacomo dall’Orio, completed in 1581.
This Pietà, with its striking naturalism, was painted in 1584, as documented by the artist's bold signature and inscription at right. The altarpiece clearly harkens back to Titian's model, yet here Palma has reversed the composition and shortened the distance between the grieving mother and her son, thereby creating a more intimate moment. A preparatory drawing is now in the British Museum, London (fig. 1). As the present lot was unknown to Stefania Mason Rinaldi at the time of the publication of her catalogue raisonné, she included the London drawing as a `prima idea' for the Pietà that Palma painted nearly four decades later for the Church of the Sacro Cuore, Parre (S. Mason Rinaldi, Palma il Giovane. L’opera completa, Milan, 1984, pp. 101, 157, and 454, nos. 209 and D88, figs. 731 and 734). The scholar has since revised her opinion, stating that the drawing is much closer related to our painting (private communication, 2018). Following the creation of this Pietà, Palma's career continued to flourish and by the turn of the century he was established as the leading artist in Venice, formulating a Counter Reformation style that would close the glorious chapter of the Venetian cinquecento and look towards the early baroque.
This Pietà, with its striking naturalism, was painted in 1584, as documented by the artist's bold signature and inscription at right. The altarpiece clearly harkens back to Titian's model, yet here Palma has reversed the composition and shortened the distance between the grieving mother and her son, thereby creating a more intimate moment. A preparatory drawing is now in the British Museum, London (fig. 1). As the present lot was unknown to Stefania Mason Rinaldi at the time of the publication of her catalogue raisonné, she included the London drawing as a `prima idea' for the Pietà that Palma painted nearly four decades later for the Church of the Sacro Cuore, Parre (S. Mason Rinaldi, Palma il Giovane. L’opera completa, Milan, 1984, pp. 101, 157, and 454, nos. 209 and D88, figs. 731 and 734). The scholar has since revised her opinion, stating that the drawing is much closer related to our painting (private communication, 2018). Following the creation of this Pietà, Palma's career continued to flourish and by the turn of the century he was established as the leading artist in Venice, formulating a Counter Reformation style that would close the glorious chapter of the Venetian cinquecento and look towards the early baroque.