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| Artist | Attributed to (Gerolamo de`Magistro?) Master of Fontanarosa (Italian artist, active early 17th century) |
| Previous attributions | Previously attributed to school of Carracci, Lodovico (Italian painter and draftsman, 1555-1619) Previously attributed to school of Vitale, Filippo (Italian painter, ca. 1585-1650) |
| Title | Pieta |
| Date earliest | possibly about 1600 |
| Date latest | possibly about 1700 |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 200.7 x 153.7 cm |
| Description | The foreshortened dead Christ reposes in the lap of the Virgin who gestures with her left hand to St. John standing to the right. He raises both hands gesturing up to the crucifix. Below the Magdalene kneels in adoration of the dead Christ. Strong local colours of blue, red and yellow dominate the picture whilst the attendants in parallel to the picture plane mass densely against an evening sky. In the left foreground are the instruments of the passion. Behind the Virgin a rock suggests Christ’s tomb. Faces and gestures bring a highly wrought emotional charge to the picture. |
| Subject | religion (Pieta) |
| Collection | Dundee Art Galleries and Museums / McManus Galleries |
| Current accession number | 1-1951 |
| Acquisition details | Given by William G. Shiell 1950. |
| Provenance | Nicols about 1850. |
| Principal exhibitions | Battistello Caracciolo e il primo naturalismo a Napoli, Naples and Bologna, 1991, cat. no. 2.52. |
| Principal publications | Hardie, W., Dundee City Art Gallery Catalogue, Dundee, 1973, p. 34, illus. p.150, as by Carracci; Spinosa, N., La pittura napoletana del ‘600, Milan, 1984, ill. no. 879 (as by Filippo Vitale); Battistello Caracciolo e il primo naturalismo a Napoli, Naples, Bologna, 1991, pp.296-7, illus. no. 2.52 , as by Girolamo de Magistro. |
| Notes | Provenance : Donated by William G. Shiell (of London) in memory of the ‘Four John Shiells’, 1950. The first John Shiell came from Kelso to Dundee in 1827 and helped to found the legal firm of Shiell and Small in the 1830s. He lived in his latter life at Kelly Castle, near Arbroath, where he died in 1874. The second commemorated is John Sheill of Cairney, Cupar (Fife), who bought a large portion of a collection of paintings, mostly Italian, from a kinsman of the name of Nicols, who had bought them in Italy in the mid 19th century. |
| Rights status | © McManus Galleries and Museum |
| Author | Dr Claudia Heide |
