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Lot Essay
This painting is based on Sebastiano del Piombo’s Flagellation (oil on plaster), created for the Chapel of Pier Francesco Borgherini in San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, between 1516 and 1524. Michelangelo provided preparatory drawings for Sebastiano, two of which are in the British Museum, London (inv. nos. 1895.0915.813; 1895.0915.500; see A. Gnann, Michelangelo: The Drawings of a Genius, Vienna, 2010, pp. 176–179). The Flagellation quickly attracted the attention of Italian and Northern artists, who reproduced it in reduced formats. By the mid-sixteenth century, Adamo Scultori (circa 1530-1585) produced a print (see Bruce Davis, Mannerist Prints: International Style in the Sixteenth Century, Los Angeles, 1988, no. 44), which, along with other copies, may have influenced the present painting (for additional reductions of the Flagellation, see M. Lucco, L'opera completa di Sebastiano del Piombo, Milan, 1980, under no. 52.)
Marcello Venusti, originally from Mozzo di Valtellina in Lombardy, was active in Rome prior to Sebastiano del Piombo’s death in June 1547. He not only reproduced Sebastiano’s fresco directly but also had access to Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings, which had become part of Tommaso de’ Cavalieri’s collection in Rome. The most famous copy of this composition is housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, though numerous other versions—and even copies of Venusti’s copies—are known to exist.
Marcello Venusti, originally from Mozzo di Valtellina in Lombardy, was active in Rome prior to Sebastiano del Piombo’s death in June 1547. He not only reproduced Sebastiano’s fresco directly but also had access to Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings, which had become part of Tommaso de’ Cavalieri’s collection in Rome. The most famous copy of this composition is housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, though numerous other versions—and even copies of Venusti’s copies—are known to exist.