High-relief polychrome wood panel depicting the... Lot 43

High-relief polychrome wood panel depicting the Deploration of Christ. In the center of the composition, the Virgin carries the body of her Son on her knees; around her, St. John comforts her, his hand resting on her veil, a holy woman holding the Savior's head in both hands, and Mary Magdalene seated at her feet, her hands in prayer. Mary Magdalene seated at her feet, her hands in prayer; in the background, from left to right, another Holy Woman, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, the Passion nails in her left hand; at the top, the city of Jerusalem in a rugged landscape. Beautifully executed. Northern Italy, Lombardy, attributed to the Master of Trognano (active 1478-1500), circa 1480/1490 H. 34 - L. 31.8 cm - Thickness 6.2 cm (some wear to the polychromy, missing parts and wormholes) Book consulted - Exhibition Milan 2005/2006, Maestri della Scultura in legno nel ducato degli Sforza, Castello Sforzesco, G. Romano and C. Salsi ed., p. 92-105, cat. II.5 and II.6 This beautiful panel was probably part of a large altarpiece depicting the Passion. Finely sculpted, it displays a highly virtuoso style, with certain parts of the figures standing out against the background, but also singular in the very sharp contours of the heads turned in profile. The dramatic character of the scene is accentuated by the gestures and expressions of deep sorrow of the various actors. Here we find the distinctive features of the late medieval Lombard school, and more specifically, the chisel of a hitherto unknown sculptor named Maestro di Trognano, after a hamlet in the province of Pavia where two large bas-reliefs forming the basis of his corpus were located. There are many details in common between this small panel and the two large ones in the Sforza castle in Milan, depicting the Carrying of the Cross and the Entombment, painted between 1482 and 1488 (fig. a and b): the overall composition, with the city of Jerusalem in the background, the exaggerated pathos of the faces, the crumpled pleats and rounded edges of the garments, right down to the flower-like foliage of the small trees lining the hills. This master, working alongside other artists such as Giacomo del Maino and the Donati brothers, is reputed by art historians to have best translated into wood the genius of Mantegna, whose style strongly influenced the Lombard school of sculpture in the last decades of the 15th century. This hitherto unpublished panel thus enriches the relatively small corpus of works attributed to this artist with his highly personal style.