Novità sui dipinti della Crocefissione dai disegni di Michelangelo: una nuova copia, la "Crocefissione Amadori", e qualche precisazione sulla "Crocefissione Cavalieri"

The essay analyzes two paintings depicting the Crucifixion with the Madonna and St. John that originated from Michelangelo’s drawings for Vittoria Colonna and “spiritual” friends, taking account of the current debate over the nature of the artist’s gifts (whether drawn or painted) to his poetess friend. In particular, it deals with a new Crucifixion (private collection), first published in 2015, all traces of which were lost, and the recent proposal to identify it with the Amadori painting created by Marcello Venusti from Michelangelo’s drawings. Knowledge of the work came from its documentation by first hand sources recording its donation by the artist to his faithful collaborator, Francesco d’Amadori, better known as “l’Urbino”. Its rediscovery now enables us to compare, with unprecedented clarity, the paintings of the Crucifixion produced by Venusti from drawings by Michelangelo, with those paintings made under the direct supervision of the master or with his contribution. The most interesting among these, and one that in recent years has attracted the attention of scholars, is the Cavalieri Crucifixion in Oxford, a painting that belonged to the Cavalieri family in Rome until the end of the eighteenth century. Closely related to this work is the Ragusa Pietà, which has recently been reclaimed as part of the oeuvre of Michelangelo himself. Regarding the Cavalieri painting, in particular a group of unpublished impressed wax seals (the one published in 1961 does not find correspondence with the reverse of the panel) is analyzed in relation to the collecting history of the family. Finally, the essay takes account of another Crucifixion attributed in the past to Michelangelo, now lost, but which was present in Naples till the end of the eighteenth century in the Quarto del Priore della Certosa di San Martino. On the basis of recent meticulous research reconstructing the painting’s provenance, the field is finally cleared from the misunderstandings that in the past have intertwined its fate with that of the Cavalieri family.