Mond Crucifixion

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Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saints and Angels
National Gallery, London

The Mond Crucifixion or Gavari Altarpiece is an oil on

Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon, and Saint Jerome saving Silvanus and punishing the Heretic Sabinianus in the North Carolina Museum of Art
.

Background

This early work by Raphael was commissioned by the wool merchant Domenico Gavari as the

Saint Jerome, where most of the painting's original pietra serena stone frame survives including the inscribed date 1503. Gavari was an associate of Andrea Baronci, for whom Raphael had already made the Baronci Altarpiece
. Gavari's first son Girolamo (Jerome) died young.

Main panel

The main panel portrays the

Saint Jerome
, who is holding a stone with which the hermit would piously beat his own chest.

The two kneeling figures are both reverently contemplating Jesus on the cross, while the two standing figures are wringing their hands while looking out at the viewer. A panel at the top of the cross bears the inscription "

INRI
", while the foot of the cross bears a Latin inscription in silver letters: "RAPHAEL/ VRBIN / AS /.P.[INXIT]" ("Raphael of Urbino painted this"). The work is lit from the left, consistent with the illumination of the altarpiece by the windows in the chapel.

The main panel measures 283.3 cm × 167.3 cm (111.5 in × 65.9 in) and is now housed in a 19th-century frame.[1] The geometrical precision of the composition suggest it was laid out using a grid, using a rule and compasses to copy from a preparatory drawings. A drawing of a kneeling person, perhaps a study for the figure of Mary Magdalene, is held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.[2]

Perugino's Monteripido Altarpiece, completed 1502, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia

The painting was influenced by

Vasari
later famously commented that no one would have believed it was painted by Raphael rather than Perugino if he had not signed it.

Predella

The two surviving panels of the predella each measure approximately 26 cm × 43 cm (10 in × 17 in) and depict miracles from the life story of Saint Jerome from the Hierominianum of Giovanni d'Andrea. Saint Jerome lived in the late 4th and early 5th century AD, so he could not have attended the crucifixion, but he is portrayed here as the patron saint of the chapel.

One of the surviving predella panels has been in the

Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon
since 1866. It depicts Eusebius of Cremona raising Three Men from the Dead with Saint Jerome's Cloak [3] Eusebius of Cremona was a close associate and active supporter of Jerome against the teachings of Origen.

The other surviving predella panel is in the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina. It depicts Saint Jerome saving Silvanus and punishing the Heretic Sabinianus. Saint Jerome is holding back the arm of the executioner ready to behead bishop Silvanus, but the heretic Sabinianus has been miraculously decapitated instead.[4]

Provenance

The main panel was bought by

scudi, and replaced in the chapel by a copy. At the Fesch sale in 1845, it was sold to the Principe di Canino, and quickly bought by Lord Ward (later Earl of Dudley). It was then in several English collections, and eventually acquired by Ludwig Mond
in 1892, after whose death in 1909 it was acquired by the National Gallery in 1924.

The predella panels seem to have been removed in the 17th century, and given as gifts to a visiting cardinal. The panel in North Carolina was formerly in the collection of Sir Francis Cook at Doughty House, Richmond, London.

Painting materials

The main panel was analyzed in the National Gallery London

ochres.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Studying Raphael: frames Archived 2019-03-31 at the Wayback Machine, National Gallery, London
  2. ^ Kneeling Figure of a Youth, Ashmolean Museum
  3. ^ The Miracle of St. Eusebius of Cremona, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
  4. ^ St. Jerome Saving Sylvanus and Punishing the Heretic Sabinianus Archived 2021-06-01 at the Wayback Machine, North Carolina Museum of Art
  5. ^ Roy, A., Spring, M., Plazzotta, C. ‘Raphael’s Early Work in the National Gallery: Paintings before Rome‘. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 25, pp 4–35.
  6. ^ Raphael, The Mond Crucifixion, ColourLex

Sources

External links

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