The Middle Ages and the 16th Century

Preserved in the original frame, which is carved and gilded. On the back of the panel is part of the original devotional inscription in Gothic majuscules on the gesso priming: O TU CHE TE TIEN IN TANTA ALTURA DE(...)MENTE UN POCO IN QUEST(...)/ MAI NI RE NI YNP(ER)ATORE NI PRI(N)CI(PE...) SUL MONDO (...)/CHOVE(...)NISE VEGNIR ATANT(...) RENASA CH(...)/ MORT (...).

From left to right the scenes show Christ Before Herod (Luke 23, 8–12), the Crucifixion and the Flagellation. It is interesting that symmetry of the composition was given precedence over the chronology of events, since logically the Crucifixion should be in third place, at the far right. Attention should also be drawn to the damage, scratches and cuts, on some of the figures, e.g. on the two men flaying Christ and on the cross on which the Saviour hangs; such damage is often found on older Italian paintings - some of the faithful wanted to punish the executioners and evil spirits, that is, the perpetrators and instruments of the suffering of holy persons. However, despite this, the original function of the picture is not quite clear. It would appear to have come down to us preserved in its entirety and does not seem to be a predella. No similar examples of Venetian painting from the 14th century are known to us. The style of the panel painting is, however, characteristically Venetian and manifests the formal repertoire of the local tradition, which was influenced by the painting schools of the neighbouring centres, such as Padua and Verona. Many details, especially in the central scene, are very close to the work of Jacobello di Bonomo who created an altarpiece in 1375, which is now lost, for the Church of San Michele in Vicenza, and the large signed and dated (1385) polyptych in the town hall in Sant’Arcangelo in Romagna. A number of works display similarities with this polyptych; we should perhaps date our painting to the artist’s period before 1385. However we must be very careful in the attribution of this painting to Jacobello di Bonomo, in view of the uncertainty in which the development of the painter’s artistic personality is still shrouded and of the present stage of the research on this period in Venetian painting, which is still very problematic.

Restored: 1974.
Provenance: Unknown. FCC, 1945; France Stele Art History Institute, SAZU, Ljubljana. The panel was brought to the Institute by Professor Stele; entrusted to the Narodna galerija in 1974.
Exhibitions: 1976, Ljubljana, No. 38; 1983, Ljubljana, No. 1; 1995, Ljubljana, No. 181.
Lit.: Cevc and Rozman 1976, pp. 54–56, Cat. and Fig. No. 38 (Venetian, mid-14C or somewhat later – attribution and dating tentative, text A. Cevc and K. Prijatelj); Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, p. 99, Cat. No. 1, Fig. 2; De Marchi 1995, pp. 314–315, Cat. No. and Fig. 181 (as Marco di Paolo Veneziano – Master of the Polyptych of San Silvestro); De Marchi 1996, pp. 241–256, Fig. 13 (Marco di Paolo Veneziano).