The Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Holy Women under the Cross (fragment) Angelo Zoppo (Zotto)

This fresco was part of a monumental Crucifixion scene on the rear wall of the refectory, or dining hall, in the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua. Extensive fragments of the work are still in situ. The Budapest fragment shows the mourning relatives and followers of Jesus: the Virgin Mary, pale and swooning in grief, is surrounded and supported on her left by Saint John the Evangelist, and on her right by Mary Magdalene and two holy women. Above them, in the scene now lost, was Christ crucified between the two thieves, with a view of a Renaissance city and a rocky landscape stretching into the distance. In the left background of the Budapest fragment, we can still see the base of the cross of the Good Thief, and part of the rope with which his feet were bound. On the right, Roman soldiers are returning to the city from the execution ground.

“Master Angelo” – identified with the painter known as Angelo Zoppo (his Italian nickname zoppo means “the lame”) – was commissioned to produce this fresco on 3 December 1489. Zoppo was a follower of the pioneering North Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna. In this work, he superficially imitated Mantegna’s precisely executed, solid, statuesque forms, his oddly shaped, slanting rocks, softly textured foliage, and anguished mourners with distorted faces. Zoppo’s painterly skills were more modest, however, so his figures seem slightly cumbersome, and the tears streaming down the rigid, mask-like faces are no substitute for expressions that more genuinely evoke emotion.

©Dóra Sallay, 2020