(Gaeta, active in the second half of the 15th Century)
The Crucifixion,
tempera and oil on panel, 46 x 29 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Aristocratic European collection, since the late 18th Century

We are grateful to Alessandro Tomei for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original, and for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

This gold-ground painting represents the Madonna to the left and Saint John the Evangelist to the right with Mary Magdalene kneeling at the base of the cross, embracing the feet of the Saviour. The halo framing the features of each of the figures, is decorated with finely executed punch-work beading and rings. This painting presents a composition of great formal elegance.

The work is stylistically distinctive of Giovanni da Gaeta, who was active during the mid-Quattrocento. The master’s name is known to us through an inscription, reading ‘Johannes Cajetanus’, to be found on the lower edge of a triptych of The Coronation of the Virgin, which is conserved in the Museo Diocesano e della Religiosità del Parco dei Monti Aurunci, Gaeta, dated 1456, originally located in the church of Santa Lucia in Gaeta.

The first corpus of works assigned to this painter was created by Federico Zeri (see F. Zeri, Il Maestro del 1456, in: Paragone, vol. 1, no. 3, 1950, pp. 19-25), this was subsequently followed by important contributions and refinements, especially concerning the signature, by Luigi Salerno (see L. Salerno, Il Museo Diocesano di Gaeta, Gaeta 1956, p. X ff., 13 ff., and 29 ff.) and again by Zeri (see F. Zeri, Appunti, in: Paragone, no. 129, 1960, pp. 51-53).

The stylistic similarities between the present Crucifixion and the Gaeta Coronation are especially evident in the treatment of the figures, in their elongated outlined forms and in their intensely expressive features, communicating great pathos. The muted iridescence of the palette points to Giovanni da Gaeta having trained in Southern Italy, in all likelihood in Naples, where he could also have come into contact with examples of Catalan and Valencian painting, which were well represented in the city at the time, and which might have especially informed his manner of depicting the features of his subjects, as well as the tonal range in his choice of palette.

Another of Giovanni da Gaeta’s works which compares with the present painting is The Crucifixion, a monumental, painted cross, conserved in the Museo Diocesano, Gaeta. The similarities between the figure of Christ on the Gaeta cross and that on the present Crucifixion are marked, while the rendering of the Magdalene in both compositions is very similar. In both works the Magdalene’s thick, curling locks of fair hair, her expression, as well as the palette adopted for her depiction are all features that point to the work of a single hand.

Although neither Giovanni da Gaeta’s date of birth, nor that of his death are known, Tomei suggests that the present painting can be aligned chronologically with the cross at Gaeta and that it therefore belongs to the artist’s full maturity.