The Mocking of Christ,
oil on canvas, 134 x 113 cm, framed

The present painting depicts the moment in which Christ is crowned with thorns surrounded with a limited number of figures, thereby focusing the attention on Jesus in accordance with the intellectual parameters established and asserted by the Counter Reformation. The present composition appears to abandon classical norms, almost as if to underline the political disorder during this particular period in history with the emergence of a new order. Here the figures are arranged along divergent axis’s emphasizing the violence. At the time that the present painting was executed, the principal painter in Rome, Sebastiano del Piombo, had recently died which meant that there was no authoritative point of reference in the arts, leaving space for new kinds of stylistic experimentation.

The artist responsible for the present painting appears to have been influenced by Daniele Ricciarelli da Volterra, whose position had already been established between 1545 and 1547 by his work in the Cappella Orsini at Trinità dei Monti, Rome. Additionally, the breadth of the soft pictorial planes also points to another source of reference: the frescoes in the Cappella della Rovere in the same church which were begun with the execution of paintings on the vault and three lunettes, between 1548 and 1550, but following the death of the patron, Lucrezia della Rovere, work was interrupted in 1552, only to be completed years later.

The head of Christ in the present painting relates, in counterpart, to a drawing by Daniele da Volterra in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (inv. KdZ 24802) which is a preparatory study for the young apostle positioned on the immediate centre-left of the Assumption of the Virgin. According to Mauro Lucco the relationship displays the stylistic context to which the present painting belongs, suggesting in all probability, that it was executed in the studio of Ricciarelli himself. Moreover, even the figure of the soldier mocking Christ on the right in the present painting appears to derive from the lost frescoes of the Stories of the True Cross in the Cappella Orsini, and can be compared, again in counterpart, to a drawing in the Louvre (inv. 1526). The figure of the man pushing the crown of thorns onto Christ’s head also finds a notable parallel in the figure of the Prophet Elias in the desert by Daniele da Volterra in the Pannocchieschi d’Elci collection, which dates to the same period as the Orsini Chapel.

According to Vasari Daniele da Volterra had employed Gaspar Becerra to paint the Madonna in the Della Rovere chapel (see Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori…, 1568, ed. Milanesi, vol. VII, p. 60): ‘in una delle facciate fece fare a Bizzera spagnuolo la Natività di essa Vergine’. Only half of this fresco is preserved, however it appears to be stylistically comparable to the present painting.

Few facts are known about the Andalusian Gaspar Becerra (Baeza 1520–1568 Madrid). He arrived in Italy at a young age and in 1546 he was a member of Vasari’s équipe that worked on the Sala dei Cento Giorni in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome; thereafter he possibly worked with Daniele da Volterra at Palazzo Farnese in 1550, while in 1551 he was in Florence and in 1553 he received the commission from Costantino del Castillo to decorate his chapel in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli in Rome; finally in 1556 he returned definitively to Spain. Of the San Giacomo chapel decoration, today only the fresco, in poor condition, of Christ in Limbo survives in the store-rooms of Castel Sant’Angelo, however there is a preparatory drawing for Christ is in the Accademia, Venice (inv. 511) which is by the hand of Becerra. It represents a head that appears to be almost identical, according to Lucco, to that of the soldier pressing the crown of thorns onto Christ’s head in the present painting.

Additionally, a drawing in the Escorial Library, Madrid (see Gaspar Becerra et Polidoro, in: L’Arte nella Storia. Contributi di critica e storia dell’arte per Gianni Carlo Sciolla, V. Terraroli, F. Varallo, L. De Fanti, (eds.), Milan 2000, p. 336, tav. XLII, 4) should also be considered, again in reverse. It appears to be a preparatory study for the head of Christ in the present picture. The comparisons presented here are between the present painting and drawings, which make for a complex form of reference, however, there are few surviving paintings by Becerra, and those in Italy are limited to those already cited here. In Spain Beccera was responsible for the decoration of a ceiling in the Royal Palace of El Pardo executed between 1562 and 1567. However, the stylistic comparisons outlined appear to be sufficient, according to Lucco to suggest the present canvas is by the hand of Gaspar Becerra, and this work should be dated to 1553 or slightly later.

We are grateful to Mauro Lucco for suggesting an attribution to Gaspar Becerra (Baeza 1520–1568 Madrid) for the present painting and for his help in cataloguing this lot.