MARCANTONIO BASSETTI (VERONA 1586-1630)

Born in Verona, Marcantonio Bassetti began his training in the studio of the Mannerist painter Domenico Brusasorci before moving to Venice, where his style was deeply influenced by encounters with the works of Tintoretto, Veronese and Bassano. From Venice he travelled to Rome, where he is recorded by 1616. In the Eternal City his painting took a markedly different turn, when Bassetti he became part of a group whose work followed that of the German born Adam Elsheimer. The latter’s influence can be felt in the present painting, where the play of light and shadow is manipulated to heighten the drama of the scene. Christ’s lifeless body casts a glow that illuminates the figures around him, giving greatest prominence to the hunched figure of Nicodemus, whose furrowed gaze is directed out at the viewer, and the mourner’s hand that points upward to the heavens, foreshadowing Christ’s ascension.

We are grateful to Professor Sergio Marinelli for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs (October 2020).