Thought to be lost to history for centuries, a newly attributed Andrea Mantegna painting depicting Jesus Christ’s descent from the cross has made its way from a church in Pompeii to the Vatican Museums for a three-month exhibition starting last Thursday, March 20. Found in poor condition, the painting was attributed to the Venetian Renaissance artist during the Vatican Museums’s intense and meticulous restoration.
Prior to being identified, the last historical record associated with the painting dates back to the 16th century, when such a work was said to have been at the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples. Without any records of its transfer, the artwork was discovered at the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in Pompeii, where it was displayed in obscurity for centuries. The work is undated, but may have been commissioned between 1496 and 1501.
The Sanctuary posted an image of the work online in a digitized inventory of ecclesiastical cultural heritage in Italy, sparking the attention of Stefano De Mieri, a professor and researcher at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples, who intuited that the painting was an original Mantegna work in 2020. After visiting the work onsite in 2021, De Mieri observed that it had been heavily altered by several restorations in its lifetime.
The “Deposition of Christ” was subsequently brought to Rome in 2022 for further investigation and conservation, where non-invasive diagnostic imagery, research, and removal of the heavy overpainting at the Vatican Museum laboratories yielded confirmation that the painting was undeniably from Mantegna’s hand. The attribution was made that year, though it was only announced earlier this week.
“Its iconography is linked to Renaissance models and the artist’s typical classicism, with references to antiquity that make it unique in Mantegna’s production,” Fabrizio Biferali, the curator of Renaissance Arts at the Vatican Museums, who co-organized the exhibition, said in a statement.
After its display in Room 17 of the Pinacoteca, the “Deposition of Christ” will be returned to the Sanctuary in Pompeii, after which it will find a permanent home in a section of the Diocesan Museum.
