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Lot Essay
This small-scale, jewel-like canvas once formed part of the lauded collection of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg in Munich, appearing in an 1852 inventory (loc. cit.) which traces it back to Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (1781-1824), 1st Duke of Leuchtenberg and 1st Prince of Eichstätt. The Lamentation remained in the Leuchtenberg collection, which moved from Munich to St. Petersburg and back more than once, until the turn of the twentieth century. At the time of its publication by Silla Zamboni in 1968 (loc. cit.), the author was unable to trace the painting and assumed it must be buried in storage at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. The Leuchtenberg collection had in fact been sold en bloc to the Swedish Nordiska Company by 1917, with a portion of it, the Mazzolino included, later being moved to Argentina where the company had a branch. Seven paintings from the Argentinian group were acquired by the father of the present owner in 1940 and have remained in the family since.
Signed and dated, this beautiful Lamentation is typical of the artist’s style, with its distinctive bright palette and sfumato brushwork effects. The elegantly composed figures fill the foreground, while in the distant upper left, a crowd gathers at the feet of the three crosses where the two thieves still remain. This beautiful, miniaturist vignette and the treatment of the foliage and landscape are reminiscent of Dosso Dossi in their fluid brushwork and luminous coloration.
Mazzolino developed his own distinct, and at times idiosyncratic, style of devotional painting, through his unique training and exposure to Northern European art by way of prints. Mazzolino left his native Ferrara to begin his artistic studies in the Bolognese workshop of Lorenzo Costa at the end of the fifteenth century. He returned to Ferrara shortly thereafter and by 1504 had accepted a commission from Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara and Modena, to decorate the chapels of the Santa Maria degli Angeli (destroyed in 1604). It has been suggested that around 1509 Mazzolino crossed paths with Giorgione and Albrecht Dürer in the north of Italy, and these encounters may account for the unique and occasionally archaizing compositions Mazzolino employed in his devotional panels.
Signed and dated, this beautiful Lamentation is typical of the artist’s style, with its distinctive bright palette and sfumato brushwork effects. The elegantly composed figures fill the foreground, while in the distant upper left, a crowd gathers at the feet of the three crosses where the two thieves still remain. This beautiful, miniaturist vignette and the treatment of the foliage and landscape are reminiscent of Dosso Dossi in their fluid brushwork and luminous coloration.
Mazzolino developed his own distinct, and at times idiosyncratic, style of devotional painting, through his unique training and exposure to Northern European art by way of prints. Mazzolino left his native Ferrara to begin his artistic studies in the Bolognese workshop of Lorenzo Costa at the end of the fifteenth century. He returned to Ferrara shortly thereafter and by 1504 had accepted a commission from Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara and Modena, to decorate the chapels of the Santa Maria degli Angeli (destroyed in 1604). It has been suggested that around 1509 Mazzolino crossed paths with Giorgione and Albrecht Dürer in the north of Italy, and these encounters may account for the unique and occasionally archaizing compositions Mazzolino employed in his devotional panels.