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The present painting, which depicts The Risen Christ, comes from the collection of the Pusterla della Porta family of Milan where it is documented from 1590 until the first quarter of the twentieth century. It was acquired by the Thyssen Bornemisza Collection in 1936 from the collection of the Contessa Teresa Mocenigo Soranza in Milan. Since it was published for the first time by Müller Walde in 1898 the painting has been the object of various studies in which its attribution has been widely discussed. The painting's attribution has always been given either to Bramante or Bramantino. Müller Walde and the authors of the earlier catalogues of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection attributed the work to Bramante. It was Suida in 1904 who first raised the possibility that the painting could be the work of Bartolommeo Suardi, a pupil of Bramante who was known as Bramantino. Today it is considered one of this artist's masterpieces. The painting was dated to around 1490 by Mulazzani (1978), who included it among the artist's early works.
The subject of the painting has also aroused different opinions. In earlier publications and in some exhibition catalogues the painting was described as an Ecce Homo and a Man of Sorrows, but more recently it has been interpreted as a Risen Christ, the title now given to it. The reasons for this major change of opinion are iconographic. The Ecce Homo subject represents Christ presented to the people after His flagellation and crowning with thorns. Disseminated since the end of the fifteenth century, it shows a Christ with the crown pressed onto His head, bleeding, wearing the purple cloak and with the cane and with tied hands. None of these attributes are to be found in the present painting. Here Christ appears full face, very clearly showing the spectator the wounds of His passion which are realistically depicted on His hands, and the wound in His side which he covers with His robe. The representation of the wounds allows us to identify the image as that of the Risen Christ and to suggest that the dark background on the right could be the tomb in the Garden of Gethsemane. On the left Bramantino has painted a landscape with a river with a ship with a T shaped mast and two tents topped by golden balls.
This Risen Christ is very far removed from representations of the subject which show Christ triumphant over Death. The Saviour is here shown with reddened eyes and an expression of intense pain and sadness. The body, painted with an almost ghostly pallor, contrasts with the strong reddish tones used on the face, hair and hands. Christ, standing and three quarter length, is drawn with great precision and exactness as can be seen in the fingers, the outstretched arm and the musculature. The inspiration for this figure of Christ is Bramante's Christ at the Column (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan). There is another canvas in the museum of the Certosa di Pavia of slightly larger format than the present one and also thought to be by Bramantino, which repeats this composition albeit in a slightly more gently modelled style.
Mar Borobia
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