First documented in connection with the Borghese Collection in 1693, this painting was initially attributed to Raphael and later to the Carracci school. Yet critics subsequently rejected its association with artistic circles of Bologna, rather proposing those of Rome and – more recently – the name of Giulio Romano and Ippolito Costa. The panel represents John the Evangelist, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea as they place Christ’s body in the tomb. To the right are depicted Mary Magdalene with Our Lady of Sorrows, held up by the pious women.
19th-century frame with cymatium moulding, 107.5 x 94 x 10.5 cm
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection, 1693 (Inventory 1693, room II, no. 23); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 17. Purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
1906 - Luigi Bartolucci (support)
2002/03 - Andrea Parri (frame)
2008 - Laura Ferretti
Work not currently exhibited
Catalogue entry
The painting, of unknown provenance, has been documented in the Borghese collection since 1693, when it was listed in the corresponding inventory with an erroneous attribution to Raphael. This attribution was revised in 1833, when the panel was incorrectly catalogued (the recorded dimensions are inconsistent) by the fideicommissari compiler as a work of the School of the Carracci, an attribution later reiterated by Giovanni Piancastelli (1891) and Adolfo Venturi (1893).
The first to reject any connection between the Borghese painting and the Bolognese school was Roberto Longhi (1928), who placed the work within the sphere of Roman Mannerism, associating it with the circle of Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta. According to Paola Della Pergola (1959), this is suggested by the mechanical nature of the composition and the rigidity of the faces and drapery; however, she also observed that the panel does not seem far removed from the manner of Polidoro da Caravaggio. In 2006, Kristina Herrmann Fiore revisited the attribution to Giulio Romano, though this was not accepted, due to the stiffness of the gestures and the naïve rendering of the expressions.
On the reverse of a photograph of the Borghese painting (FZ, INVN 65768), the art historian Federico Zeri annoted in his own hand: “from the altarpiece by Ippolito Costa in the Church of S. Egidio in Mantua.” He was referring to an engraving by Diana Scultori (GDSR, inv. S-FC50720; Bellini 1991, pp. 168–169, no. D.4), which reproduces, with some variations, the Mantuan painting. That work, executed by Ippolito Costa porbably between 1540 and 1560 (Tellini Perina 1965, III.1, p. 336; Gozzi 1976, p. 54), had previously been attributed to Fermo Ghisoni (Berzaghi 1981, p. 309; R. Berzaghi in Osanna 2005, pp. 260–267, no. 33), Costa’s brother-in-law and a pupil of Giulio Romano.
Unlike the canvas in S. Egidio, proposed as deriving from a lost prototype by Giulio Romano (Tellini Perina 1984), the Scultori engraving, from which the Borghese painting appears to descend, introduces a pious woman into the composition, joining the group surrounding the Virgin. At the same time, however, it omits, just as in the version preserved in the Sordi Collection in Mantua (Gozzi 1976, p. 54), the kneeling donor figure, identified as Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga (Tellini Perina 1984; Grassi 1993), as well as two figures positioned at the edges of the scene: Saint Dominic and a Dominican nun, whose identity has been subject to various interpretations, ranging from Blessed Osanna Andreasi, to the Venerable Margherita Torchi, to Ippolita Gonzaga, the cardinal’s sister and a Dominican nun.
Antonio Iommelli
September 2022 (last updated on February 2026)
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Bibliography
G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 187;
R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 205;
P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, pp. 102-103, n. 147;
C. Tellini Perina, Dalla metà del XVI secolo ai nostri giorni, in Mantova. Le arti, III.1, a cura di E. Marani, C. Tellini Perina, Mantova 1965, p. 336;
T. Gozzi, Lorenzo Costa il Giovane, in "Saggi e Memorie di storia dell'arte", X (1976), p. 54;
R. Beraghi, Committenza del Cinquecento: la pittura, in I secoli di Polirone. Committenza e produzione artistica di un monastero benedettino, catalogo della mostra (San Benedetto Po, Museo Civico Polironiano, 1981), I, a cura di Paolo Piva, Mantova 1981, p. 309;
C. Tellini Perina, Costa, Ippolito, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, XXX, Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1984, ad vocem;
P. Bellini, a cura di, L'opera incisa di Adamo e Diana Scultori, Vicenza 1991, pp. 168-169, n. D.4
M. G. Grassi, La deposizione con il cardinal Ercole Gonzaga in S. Egidio a Mantova, in "Civiltà mantovana", XXVIII, 1993, pp. 45-63;
R. Berzaghi, in Osanna Andreasi da Mantova, I, L'immagine di una mistica del Rinascimento, catalogo della mostra (Mantova, Galleria e Museo di Palazzo Ducale, 2005), a cura di Renata Casarin, Mantova 2005, pp. 260-267, n. 33
K. Herrmann Fiore, Galleria Borghese Roma scopre un tesoro. Dalla pinacoteca ai depositi un museo che non ha più segreti, San Giuliano Milanese 2006, p. 100.
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