Christ Crowned with Thorns

This newly discovered, finely detailed panel is a significant addition to the corpus of Marco d’Oggiono, one of Leonardo’s key followers in Milan in the early sixteenth century. He was recognized in his lifetime as a singular talent, his work praised by Cesare Cesariano for its ‘maxima et diligente pratica universale’ (C. Cesariano, Vitruvius. De Architectura, Como, 1521). He was mentioned in Leonardo’s notebooks in an annotation of 7 September 1490, the latter writing that Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salaì, had stolen ‘uno graffio di valuta di 22 soldi a Marco, che stava con meco’; this brief note confirmed what had long been assumed, that d’Oggiono was indeed in the Leonardo workshop. From there he would go on to become a significant figure in Lombard painting, and a leading exponent of his master’s style, receiving commissions from important figures of the time, none more so than Giuliano della Rovere, later Pope Julius II, the renowned patron of Raphael and Michelangelo. He asked d’Oggiono to execute a series of works for the cathedral, Santa Maria del Castello, in Savona in 1500-02, which are now lost, and also commissioned a version of Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks (now Castello Sforzesco, Milan), which bears the inscription ‘Marco dipinse per Giulio’. He collaborated closely with other artists from Leonardo’s studio, including Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, working with him on the altarpiece for the Griffi Chapel in the church of San Giovanni sul Muro in Milan; only the middle panel of the work survives, the Resurrection with Saints Leonard and Lucy, now in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin.

This particular representation of Christ, shown frontally, wearing the Crown of Thorns and a look of pathos and sorrow, was not without precedent, though it is the only known treatment of this subject by d’Oggiono. The slight inclination of Christ’s head and the downward gaze appear to take their lead from the invention of Dieric Bouts, whose studio produced numerous replicas of his Ecce Homo, including a panel in the Pinacoteca di Varallo, which came from the church of Sacro Monte. It is possible that d’Oggiono may have known Bouts’ version of the subject. An even closer parallel can be made with the fresco of Christ crowned with thorns by Amborgio da Fossano, il Bergognone, in the Certosa di Pavia, made circa 1493-94: the facial features are strikingly similar in both works. The inclination of Christ’s head in the present lot, which shows a compelling level of realism and detail, may indicate, too, that there was once a pendant showing a Mater Dolorosa. Whilst little is known of the work’s provenance, a half-length ‘Salvatore’ is mentioned in 1844 by Cesare Cantù in the Trivulzio collection in Milan. In terms of physiognomy the Christ here can be compared to the half-length Salvator mundi in the Galleria Borghese (fig. 1), one of the most renowned works by the artist. The fine modelling of the features and the faceted folds of the red tunic are notably similar in both pictures, and it is possible that the panel here dates to around the same time, circa 1500-05.

We are grateful to Dr Cristina Geddo for attributing the picture to d’Oggiono and for her assistance in cataloguing this lot. Dr Geddo will publish the work in a forthcoming article, Un inedito “Volto di Cristo” di Marco d’Oggiono.