Christ at the Column

The name on this small panel changed several times before it settled. Old Borghese inventories called it a Mantegna, and later the work of Perugino's school. In 1897 the critic Bernard Berenson proposed the Milanese painter Andrea Solario. In 1928 the Italian art historian Roberto Longhi gave it to Lorenzo Costa, and later scholars have followed him. The museum places it in the early 1500s, close to Costa's altarpiece of 1502 with Saint Petronius, in Bologna. The dark background and the half-length Christ turned toward us recall Antonello da Messina and painting in Venice. A rope binds his arm, drops of blood run from the crown of thorns, and tears sit on his cheeks. One unproven theory has the panel coming to the Borghese from Lucrezia d'Este, a princess of the ruling house of Ferrara, by way of the Aldobrandini family.