(Venice 1544–1628)
The Mourning of the Dead Christ,
signed lower left: IACOBVS PALMA / F.,
oil on canvas, 170 x 115.5 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Collection of Sir Archibald Campbell, 2nd Baronet of Succoth (1769–1846), Garscube House, Glasgow, Scotland (as described by Waagen);
thence by descent to Sir Ilay Mark Campbell, 7th Baronet of Succoth (1927–2017), Crarae, Inveraray, Scotland (according to a label on the reverse);
on loan to the Glasgow Art Museum and Gallery from 1947 to 1977 (inv. no. 26);
sale, Christie’s, London, 2 December 1977, lot 26 (as Palma il Giovane);
Private European collection

Literature:
G. F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London 1854, vol. 3, p. 293 (as Palma il Giovane);
M. Horster, Disegno di Palma il Giovane dal Profeta ‘Giona’ di Michelangelo, in: Commentari. Rivista di critica e storia dell’arte, 1976, p. 65, cited under footnote 26.b;
P. Zampetti, G. A. Dell’Acqua, I pittori bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo: Il Cinquecento, vol. 3, Bergamo 1979, p. 538 cat. no. 71, illustrated p. 717;
S. Mason Rinaldi, Paintings by Palma il Giovane in British collections, in: Apollo, 1979, p. 399, footnote 8, not illustrated;
V. Markova, Inediti della pittura veneta nei musei dell’U.R.S.S. (I), in: Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte, 1982, p. 22, not illustrated;
S. Mason Rinaldi, Palma il Giovane: l’opera completa, Milan 1984, p. 86, cat. no. 104, illustrated p. 455, fig. 735

The present painting was seen by Waagen in the study of Sir Archibald Campbell at Garscube House; he described it as ‘an excellent work of his [Palma il Giovane] earlier and better time’. The work remained in the collection of the Barons of Succoth until 1977 when, after a thirty-year loan to the Glasgow Art Museum and Gallery, Sir Ilay Mark Campbell sold the painting at auction.

According to Mason Rinaldi (see literature), the present painting can be dated to circa 1620. Indeed, the overall composition, as well as the rocky outcrop and above all the crystalline light enhancing the patches of ochre, red, green and blue of the figure’s robes can be compared to Palma’s Lamentation in the Staatsgalerie Würzburg (inv. no. 4227).

A related drawing by Palma il Giovane, in a private collection, has a rounded top and may indicate the form Palma originally intended for the present work; a similar composition is also in The Tambov Museum, in Russia (152.5 x 120.5 cm; inv. no. ZZ-5).

The paintings of Palma il Giovane reveal the extent to which the artist inherited the Grand Manner of the Venetian Cinquecento – so much so, that Palma can be considered the last great exponent of the Venetian High Renaissance, and although the tradition has since been questioned, he is traditionally thought to have been a pupil of Titian.

During the late 1550s and early 1560s Palma worked in central Italy, mainly in Rome, before returning to Venice where he remained. After the death of Tintoretto in 1594, he enjoyed over three decades as the leading painter in the city.