The Crucifixion,
oil on panel, 40.6 x 33 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection Rodolphe Kann, Paris, 1905;
sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 11 May 1923, lot 27 (as Adriaen Isenbrant);
Private collection, Joseph Homberg, Paris, until 1923;
with Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 8 September 1924, lot 139 (as Adriaen Isenbrant);
with Théodore Bonjean, Paris/New York;
Private collection, R. Weininger, New York:
sale, Christie’s, London, 12th August 1972, lot 19 (as Ambrosius Benson);
with Galleria Caretto, Turin;
Private European collection

Literature:
E. von Bodenhausen, Gerard David und seine Schule, Munich, 1905, p. 220, no. 95 (as workshop of Adriaen Isenbrant)
Max J. Friedländer, Die altniederländische Malerei, vol. 11: Die Antwerpener Manieristen, Adriaen Ysenbrant, Berlin, 1934, p. 143, no. 249 (as close to Adriaen Isenbrant in terms of motif and style; see also the English re-edition: Max J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish painting, vol. 11: The Antwerp Mannerists, Adriaen Ysenbrant, Leiden, 1974, p. 96, no 249)

Gerard David’s Crucifixion of Christ in New York (Metropolitan Museum) served as a model for numerous panels in which the composition with a landscape background recurs in slightly modified variations. The Crucifixions in Los Angeles (County Museum), Brussels (Musée des Beaux-Arts), and in a private collection (sale, Arnold, Frankfurt am Main, 22 November 2008, lot 749) have been attributed to David’s student Adriaen Isenbrant. They are based on the master’s model, but without the figure of Saint Jerome, who has been replaced by Saint John on the right-hand side. The same type of crucifixion is also contained in the Altarpiece of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges, which was probably also painted by Isenbrant. The same holds true for the central panel of a triptych in the Church of Nødebo (Denmark). Further compositions based on the master’s New York panel, including those in Minneapolis (Institute of Arts) and Brussels (Musée des Beaux-Arts) have been attributed to another student of Gerard David, namely Ambrosius Benson, who, it has been suggested, originally came from Northern Italy.

The present painting is also a slightly modified version of Gerard David’s above-mentioned Crucifixion. Even if the figure of Mary Magdalene crouching at the foot of the cross does not appear in the present panel, its composition is particularly close to the above-mentioned Crucifixion by Isenbrant in a private collection: the figure of Saint John, placed on the right-hand side, similarly folds his hands in front of his chest, while the Virgin Mary is depicted on the left, her hands folded in prayer. Due to stylistic differences it is difficult to give the present panel to a specific student of David, all the more so as none of the surviving works by Isenbrant bear the artist’s signature and because there is no documentary evidence that would allow us to make secure attributions to him. In any case, the present Crucifixion can be said to be a work of superior quality by an artist who was entirely familiar with Gerard David’s œuvre; he was probably a member of the master’s workshop.

Technical analysis

The present work has an elaborate underdrawing with a great attention to detail which is typical of the Flemish technique of painting from the end of 15th and beginning of 16th century. IR reflectography shows a peculiar and interesting underdrawing that outlines all the figures and folds, with a careful hatching to mark some shadows, particularly in the clothes and on Christ’s body. The medium can be interpreted as a black ink used with a thin brush or black chalk, or both, depending on the examined area. The underdrawing is not always followed in the finsihed painting. The torso of the figure of Christ, for example is drawn turned and shifted to its right together with the loincloth, but the position of his legs is almost identical to the final version. The structure of many of the folds in the drapery has changed in respect to drawing; in fact the painter has softened and rounded edges and angles, especially in the clothes of the female figures. Faces were initially a little thinner, and the intensity of the drawing is, for certain extents, greater than painting. It has been suggested that the painter may not have been the same person that made the underdrawing.

The buildings in the background are not supported by careful underdrawing as a partial sketch was changed and the building shapes invented during painting. Together with the drawing, the most impressive technical aspect of this work regards the use of pigments. Reflectance spectroscopy measurements, performed on more than 20 points, show that azurite is the only blue pigment used, in the sky as well as in the landscape and in the clothes. In the grey and black parts of the sky, the colour is obtained mixing azurite and black, allowing the rare contrast between the figures and the environment. A copper-based green identified as verdigris constitutes the green areas of the painting, including the Magdalene’s clothes. Detectable in Saint John the Baptist’s clothes are vermillion and glazes made with red lake, the latter being a madder-type. Skin tones are obtained by the typical mixture of vermillion and iron oxides (ochres) in lead white.


Additional image:
Infrared reflectograph