Raffaello (1483-1520)
Cristo Redentore benedicente (Christ the Redeemer blessing)
c.1505–1506
Oil on panel, 31.5 x 25.5 cm
Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia
The painting was one of the first purchases made by Paolo Tosio, who had recently begun to build his collection. Negotiations for the acquisition of the small panel – which was then in Milan, owned by the Mosca family of Pesaro, who had recently moved to the Lombard capital – began in 1819 and were initially conducted with the mediation of the Brescian collector and connoisseur Teodoro Lechi. The work was on sale together with two other paintings: the Madonna of the Carnations and a small Madonna of the Rosary by the seventeenth-century painter Simone Cantarini. At the time of the purchase, Count Tosio also came into possession of a document attesting that the painting had been purchased in 1770 in Pesaro by the Marquis Carlo Barzi Mosca, and that it had been ordered by the “casa anticha” (Stradiotti 1986, pp. 33-38). The meaning of this expression has not yet been clarified, and therefore the suggestive possibility remains open that this was a way of indicating the court of Urbino, where the young Raphael began his activity under the protection of the Montefeltro family.
The dating – fixed by scholars, on stylistic grounds, to the years 1505–1506 – actually places the panel in the last years spent in Urbino by the young Raphael, before his move to Florence (J. Meyer Zur Capellen in Raffaello 2006, p. 126, n. 12; R. Stradiotti in Pinacoteca 2014, p. 438). In those years the artist painted small-format works of great stylistic refinement, intended for private devotion and densely characterized by references to classical antiquity, in line with the culture of the Urbino court, one of the main centers in Italy for the development and propagation of Humanism.
The best known examples of this peculiar stylistic phase are the two versions of Saint George and the Dragon, one preserved in Paris and the other in Washington, and the Knight’s Dream in the National Gallery in London.
The figure of Christ is placed in the foreground against a barely visible landscape background: the classical physicality of the naked torso, the result of the study of ancient sculpture, is underlined by the clear and rarefied light, which reverberates from the sky and envelops the body of the Redeemer. The regal red cloth, the crown of thorns, the hand raised to the side and the gesture of blessing define the sacredness of the figure and determine its religious message, condensed to the essential in an image that has the intensity of an icon.
Scientific investigations carried out during the restoration (Indagine 1986, pp. 45-49) revealed a very accurate pictorial layering, evident above all in the miniaturist care with which the face is rendered: here, the lenticular rendering of the beard and the incidence of light on the cheekbones reveal a thoughtful knowledge of Flemish painting, which can also be traced back to the experiences gained at the court of Urbino. In the document that came into the possession of Paolo Tosio at the time of purchase, it was also stated that in this painting Raphael wanted to portray himself “for Ecce Uomo”, thus wanting to indicate that the features of Christ should be recognized as those of the painter. This indication has recently been verified through comparison with other presumed self-portraits of Raphael, and from this comparison a validation would seem to emerge (P.L. De Vecchi, R. Stradiotti in Da Raffaello 2004, pp. 74-76). If this were the case, the hypothesis of a work born from a direct and personal bond between the artist and the recipient would gain further strength.
The presence in Brescia since 1821 of an early work by Raphael – at a time when his “first manner” was considered the highest expression of Italian painting – did not fail to arouse wide interest. The small panel was reproduced in engraving by the German artist Ludwig Grüner who would later become one of the main interpreters of Raphael in Europe and the print was published in the volume Istoria della vita e delle opere di Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino by Francesco Longhena (Milan, 1829; D’Adda 2015, pp. 64-69). The volume, which presented itself as an update of the biography of the Urbinate written by Quatremère de Quincy, constitutes a milestone in the fortune of Raphael in Italy and contains a short chapter dedicated to the Redeemer and written in epistolary form, in which the author sings the praises of Tosio as a collector and patron.
Alongside the visits made over a period of twenty years by the main critics of the time – Karl Friedrich von Rumohr, Johann David Passavant, Otto Mündler – we must remember the visit to Palazzo Tosio by another German artist, Johann Baese, a friend of Grüner and close to the circles of the Nazarene (D’Adda 2015, p. 71). Specialized in miniature copies of Raphael (he had also produced some for the Grand Duke of Tuscany), Baese dedicated an article to the Redeemer Tosio published in the magazine “Echo. Zeitschrift für Literatur, Kunst und Leben in Italien” on 8 January 1835”. In the article, which also appeared in the Italian edition of the magazine with the title “Essay on a guide for travellers who want to take advantage of the art galleries of Italy to perfect their taste,” Baese wrote: “We cannot describe the enchanting execution of the painting, nor the perfect color, nor the beautiful design, nor its feeling full of youthful innocence yet profound. It is a painting born as if from the breath of a spirit, and which does not allow one to forget the work.” (Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo)