''Christus Dolens'' or ''Christ as the Man of Sorrows'' is a tempera on panel painting by

Bramantino Bartolomeo Suardi, best known as Bramantino ( – ), was an Italian painter and architect, mainly active in his native Milan. Biography He was born in Milan, the son of Alberto Suardi, but his biography remains unclear, and was long complicated ...

, executed ''c.'' 1490, in the

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (in Spanish, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (), named after its founder), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Prado Museum on one of the city's main boulevards. I ...

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. The original Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection acquired it in 1937 from Countess Teresa Soranza-Mocenigo. A similar work by Bramantino is in the Museo della Certosa in

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...

. The painting was recorded in the Della Porta Pusterla family collection in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

in 1590, where it remained until the first quarter of the 20th century. It was published for the first time by Müller Walde in

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

and various studies attributed it to Bramantino or

Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...

. In 1905

William Suida William Suida, born Wilhelm Emil Suida (April 26, 1877 – October 29, 1959) was an eminent Austrian art historian and art collector and "one of the greatest connoisseurs of Italian art."Antonio Morassi, "Obituary: William Suida," ''The Burlington ...

was the first to suggest an attribution to Bramantino. Mulazzini dated it to 1490, early in Bramantino's career.

Description and style

The work represents Christ as a Man of Sorrows, frontal, half-length up to the knee, but it may also want to represent the Resurrection. Against the background of a ruined architecture (possibly the sepulcher) and a lunar landscape (with a river, trees and a sailing ship), the emaciated body of Christ stands out very close to the viewer, of a stony whiteness, wrapped in a mantle that draws deep creased paper-like folds, derived from the Nordic painting. A feeling of austerity and compassion prevails towards the figure who solemnly shows the signs of martyrdom, with an incisive graphic definition of the forms. Instead of the triumphant over death, Christ is depicted with red eyes, an expression of intense suffering and sadness, an almost ghostly pale body, drawn with great precision, as can be seen in the fingers, tendons of the outstretched arm and muscles and chest. The expression of Christ is powerful enough to focus the observer's attention on the sphere of emotions, which is the aspect Bramantino was most interested in presenting.Pierluigi De Vecchi ed Elda Cerchiari, ''I tempi dell'arte'', vol. 2, Bompiani, Milan 1999.

References

{{Bramantino Paintings by Bramantino Paintings in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Paintings of Christus Dolens 1490 paintings