THE LAYING OF JESUS IN THE TOMB, A COPY OF THE DEPOSITION BY RAPHAEL FOR THE BAGLIONI FAMILY

Thanks to a recent restoration, it is now possible to read the letters on the hem of the gown of Nicodemus, the man holding Christ by the shoulders. The letters state the date, MDCXXXIX, finally revealing the chronology of one of the most important paintings executed in Perugia by Il Sassoferrato. This painting is a copy of a famous altarpiece by Raphael, which was commissioned by Atalanta Baglioni for the church of San Francesco al Prato, shortly after the death of her son, Grifonetto (1507). The original by Raphael, much desired by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, was sent to Rome in 1608. This was considered to be an irremediable loss to the city, to the extent that in 1609 Pope Paolo V Borghese, Scipione’s uncle, commissioned a copy by Cavalier d’Arpino to be placed in the Church of San Francesco. Sassoferrato’s time in Rome, where he lived with Domenichino, is well documented from 1629 onwards. He moved there definitively at the end of 1640, and would later die in the same city. In Rome he was able to study the works of Raphael, and lend his own language toward recovering the figurative sources of the early 16th century. Another example of his skill is the portrayal of Faith and Hope on wood panel. Now held in the ‘Tesori d’Arte’ Gallery of the Fondazione per l’Istruzione Agraria, these are larger reproductions of two of the three theological virtues Raphael himself executed on the predella of the Baglioni Deposition.