Marco Palmezzano
(Forlì c. 1460 – 1539)
Road to Calvary
Tempera on panel, 184×186 cm
Painted between the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, this work entered the collection of Bernardino Spada in 1641, when the cardinal commissioned the carpenter Andrea Battaglini to make a rich frame with lateral obelisks and two cherubs, which has unfortunately disappeared.
It is an extensive painting by the greatest Forlì painter of the Renaissance, a work in which the legacy of Melozzo da Forlì merges with that of Giovanni Bellini to create a unique representation in the career of the great artist, who, in turn, had repeatedly returned to the theme of Christ carrying the Cross.
Distinguished by a transient atmosphere, in which the clear light and brilliant colours dilute the pain of the representation in a spiritual and meditative quality, the painter makes the procession of the pious women, the young St. John and the figures of Christ and Cyrene, so many images of statuesque nobility, watched over from the top of the lunette by the Eternal Blessing, surrounded by a group of multicolored cherubs.
