This beautiful Cerruti relief presents the viewer with a highly dramatic scene, showing the Dead Christ collapsed on his tomb and supported by three despairing angels. The interpretation of the work is made easier by its good state of preservation today. At least two modern restoration projects have been documented: one dating to 1981 and carried out by Sonia Bozzini, and another carried out by Paolo d’Antonio when it entered the Cerruti Collection.¹ During the first intervention, the sculpture was already missing some elements that can still be seen in two old photographs published by Raffaele Casciaro:² the angels appear to have had wings and there was an almost certainly original fragmentary inscription on the front of the sarcophagus, which alluded to the Passion: “Pro vita [p]o[puli] / Respi[ce] qu[anta t]uli”. 

The carving was purchased by Francesco Federico Cerruti in 1997 from a private collection in Milan. When attempting to trace its history, it has proved difficult to go back any earlier than 1988, when it was exhibited at the Mostra dell’Antiquariato Internazionale in Milan by the antiques dealer Giuseppe Mainieri. During the exhibition, the sculpture attracted the attention of Paolo Venturoli, who, having noted its markedly Lombard characteristics, suggested attributing it to the prolific workshop of the carvers Giovan Pietro and Giovanni Ambrogio De Donati.³ Raffaele Casciaro then redirected its interpretation towards a more accurate reference to the late phase of the Milanese sculptor Giacomo Del Maino.⁴ This latter interpretation was quite rightly supported by later studies and received further confirmation in 2015, when the work was presented in Milan in the major exhibition devoted to Lombard art of the Visconti and Sforza period.⁵ 

In order to back up his attribution to the head of what was one of the most important woodcarving workshops in Sforza Lombardy, Casciaro highlighted the similarities between the figure of Christ and that of St John in the majestic cross in Castel San Giovanni, carved in 1496 by Giacomo and his son Giovanni Angelo. He also cited a range of potential comparisons, including the saints next to the Virgin in the triptych in the Turin-based Funaro Collection.⁶ These connections must necessarily be confirmed, as must the date of 1490-95 proposed by the scholar, which was a period of early activity in the workshop for Giacomo’s sons and artistic heirs: Giovanni Angelo and Tiburzio. The style, the comparable and constantly maintained expressive warmth and the marked naturalistic detail, perceptible in particular elements such as the dense network of veins that cover Christ’s limbs and the blood - rendered in relief, like the tears shed by the Angels - that drips copiously from the wounds in his rib cage and on his hands, all match other pieces by the head of the Maino family. All the usual elements seen in his work can be found here, such as the graphic definition of the hair and beard, carved with a softness that is instead missing from the works of the aforementioned De Donati brothers. On the other hand, these masters also created a group with a similar iconography, namely the later monumental Pietà at the shrine of Orselina, in Canton Ticino. Nevertheless, a comparison - sometimes made in literature - effectively emphasises the differences rather than the similarities.⁷ In iconographical terms, Casciaro also points out the similarities between the Cerruti group and the work of Ambrogio da Fossano known as Bergognone in the panel now in the Cagnola Collection. This has recently led to the suggestion that our artist had seen the painting for himself.⁸ 

In the absence of any specific data, the question of the original provenance of the Dead Christ remains open, as does the issue of its primary function. The small size of the object means it is plausible that it may have formed the central part of an altarpiece or, more probably, have crowned a large altar, just as the Del Maino workshop chose to do, with a carving of an identical subject, in the church complex of San Maurizio in Ponte in Valtellina (Sondrio), which probably dates to just slightly earlier.⁹

Federica Siddi

¹ The first restoration is described by Casciaro 2000, pp. 274-275, cat. 41. Information on the second restoration project can be found among Cerruti’s documents.

² Casciaro, Moro 1996, p. 52 fig. 19; Casciaro 1998, pp. 173-174; Casciaro 2000, p. 274.

³ P. Venturoli, “Scultura lignea a Orta”, in Archeologia ed arte nel Cusio 1989, p. 53, note 17; Id. 2005, p. 50, note 17.

⁴ R. Casciaro, “Gli arredi lignei del Santuario”, in Bormetti, Casciaro 1996, pp. 208, 210. The scholar discussed the carving again on several occasions: Casciaro, Moro 1996, p. 54; Casciaro 1998, p. 189; Id. 2000, pp. 84, 274-275, cat. 41; R. Casciaro, “Lo stile del Maestro di Trognano”, in Bascapè, Tasso 2005, pp. 123-124; R. Casciaro, “Maestri e botteghe nel secondo Quattrocento”, in Milan 2005-06, p. 105 note 38; Casciaro 2018, pp. 17-18.

⁵ V. Natale, in Milan 2015, p. 370, cat. VI. 25.

⁶ On these works: Casciaro 2000, pp. 83, 133-135, 272-273, cat. 38; M. Tanzi, in Dionigi, Ferro 2020, pp. 193-195, cat. 36.

⁷ For the Ticino group see now: M. Tanzi, in Rancate-Varese 2010-11, pp. 122-127, cat. 27.

⁸ On this matter see also: G. C. Sciolla, “Bergognone giovane: problemi iconografici”, in Pavia 1998 pp. 148-149. Regarding direct knowledge of the Cagnola painting, see V. Natale, in Milan 2015, p. 370, cat. VI. 25. On this work, datable to around 1480 and probably commissioned by the Olivetans, see now: N. Righi, in Milan 2015, pp. 298-299, cat. IV.30. Regarding the unusual iconography and its circulation in Lombardy, with a reference to the Cerruti group: Gallori 2010, pp. 24-38.

⁹ Casciaro 2000, pp. 275-276, cat. 42; Casciaro 2018, p. 17.