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Core Record |
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| Title | The Dead Christ | |
| Original Translation | Christo Passo | |
| Collection | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery | |
| Artist | Attributed to Cima da Conegliano, Giovanni Battista (Italian painter, ca. 1459-1517) Attributed to after Bellini, Giovanni (Italian painter, born 1431-1436, died 1516) Previously attributed to Basaiti, Marco (Italian painter, ca.1480-ca.1530) |
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| Date Earliest | about 1499 | |
| Date Latest | about 1501 | |
| Description | This small figure of the dead Christ seated on the tomb was probably the central pinnacle on the top level of a polyptych (many-panelled altarpiece). It has also been suggested, based on a physical examination of damage to the right hand edge, that it could have served as the door of a ciborium or tabernacle in which the Communion bread, symbolic of Christ's body, was stored. However, the foreshortened lower body suggests that the panel was meant to be viewed from below, making the polyptych the more likely solution. The figure of Christ may have been supported by two angels, subsequently painted over. Cima worked on the mainland around Venice and was much influenced by the work of his great Venetian contemporary, Giovanni Bellini. |
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| Current Accession Number | 1930P16 | |
| Former Accession Number | P.16´30 | |
| Subject | religion (Dead Christ on Tomb) | |
| Measurements | 26.9 x 16.7 cm cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on panel (cypress?) | |
| Acquisition Details | Given by Public Picture Gallery Fund 1930. | |
| Provenance | Paul Delaroff, St Petersburg; Paul Delaroff sale, George Petit, Paris, 1914, lot 219 as Cima; Popoff, Paris, 1929; Agnew's. | |
| Principal Exhibitions | Agnew's, London, 1957, cat. no. 25; Primitives to Picasso, Royal Academy of Art, 1962, cat. no. 10; Old Masters from Birmingham, Wildenstein, London, 1970, cat. no. 5. | |
| Publications | Berenson, B., Venetian Pictures, 1957, vol. 1, p. 64, ill.; Coletti, L., Cima da Conegliano, 1959, p.82,, pl. 63a; Heinmann, F., Giovanni Bellini e i Belliniani, 1962, p. 53; Meneguzzi, L., Cima da Conegliano, 1981, p. 138, fig. 162; Humfrey, P., Cima da Conegliano, 1983, p. 8; Foreign Paintings in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, A Summary Catalogue, 1983, no. 29, ill. | |
| Notes | Also copied by Van Mieris, about 1680, Coletti has dated the original to around 1500. A similar painting of the Dead Christ supported by two angels and showing the same foreshortening of the legs was formerly in the Cook Collection, Richmond, sold at Sotheby's, 25 June 1958, lot 9, then 29 March 1968, lot 86, then 9 July 1982, lot 74, and now in a private collection in Ireland[?]. | |
| Rights Owner | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery | |
| Author | Dr Patricia Smyth | |