The Flagellation; (reverse) The Madonna of Mercy

Romanino painted this double-sided standard, whose original function was to be carried in processions, around 1540 for an unidentified lay confraternity, probably connected with a church in or near the north Italian city of Brescia. The obverse of the banner depicts the flagellation of Christ, whose pale, exposed body stands out from the crowd of his tormentors who surround him. They brandish bunches of twigs, or kneel to tie together more of them, faces concentrated on their tasks. On the reverse the Madonna of Mercy, with Saints Francis and Anthony of Padua behind her, encircles and protects a group of kneeling, robed men holding scourges. At least some of these seem to be portraits of the members of the flagellant confraternity that commissioned the banner, which they would have carried in religious processions. To this end Romanino painted on a thin and very fine support, probably in distemper, a medium of pigments mixed with glue size on a barely primed canvas (the medium has not been scientifically analyzed). Artists were able to work fluidly and quickly in this medium, and the surfaces of paintings in distemper were matte and distinctive in appearance. The medium was often used in northern Italy for works of art on canvas that needed to travel (the canvas could be rolled) or were to be seen from a distance, including organ shutters and banners. Damage at the bottom center of the banner (seen clearly on the reverse) suggests that it was originally attached to a pole at its base, by which it would have been carried. Later it was probably hung permanently in a church, with only one side on view and with the Madonna of Mercy covered by a lining (for the technique and conservation of the painting see Bayer 2003).

Around 1540, Romanino undertook to paint a number of significant works in this medium, all related stylistically. These include organ shutters for the church of San Giorgio in Braida, Verona, and two large canvases of the Adoration of the Magi, possibly also originally shutters, now in SS. Nazaro e Celso in Brescia (for these see Nova 1994, pp. 307–8, no. 78, and pp. 309–10, no. 81; and Romanino: un pittore in rivolta nel Rinascimento italiano. Exh. cat., Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trent. Cinisello Balsamo, Milan, 2006, nos. 31a and b, and 33a and b). In each the artist has devised a composition of tightly packed figures to create a sense of commotion and urgency, and has experimented with strong effects of light and shadow across faces and bodies, adding to a sense of drama. The rough plebeian faces and contemporary clothing may have been inspired by German prints by artists such as Hans Baldung Grien, and the vehement expressivity may have its impetus in northern works known to Romanino as well. By contrast, the composition and treatment of the reverse has more in common with related works by Romanino’s contemporary, Moretto da Brescia.

It is unfortunate that the identity of this Franciscan confraternity has not yet been discovered. The artist is known to have painted a processional banner in 1537 for the members of the confraternity of S. Maria delle Grazie e di San Girolamo, who met in the church of S. Maria delle Grazie, but this was a community of Hieronymites rather than Franciscans (see Romanino: un pittore in rivolta nel Rinascimento italiano, p. 416). There is no indication that the Franciscan confraternity in Brescia, known as the Congregazione francescana dei Capriolanti, which by 1540 was attached to the newly-built church of San Giuseppe, had a work by the artist. It is likely that by the 1580s the painting was hung somewhere conspicuous, as it seems clear that Caravaggio, who grew up in a neighboring town and studied in nearby Milan, saw it and referred to it when painting his Flagellation of Christ for the Dominicans in Naples in 1607 (Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples).

Andrea Bayer 2013

private collection, France (until about 1980 or shortly thereafter); [art market, France, by 1985–88; sold to Algranti]; [Algranti & Co., London, 1988–89; sold to The Met]

Alessandro Nova. Letter to Keith Christiansen. July 21, 1989, bases the date of 1540 on the work's similarity to Romanino's organ shutters in San Giorgio in Braida, Verona, of that date; after having seen the work, believes that an assistant may have collaborated with Romanino on the reverse of the picture; mentions documents indicating that Alessandro Romanino collaborated with his cousin Girolamo on a processional banner made for the confraternity of Santa Maria delle Grazie e di San Girolamo, Brescia, in 1537, and others recording the existence of a Franciscan confraternity in Brescia.

Keith Christiansen in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1989–1990." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 48 (Fall 1990), pp. 36–37, ill. in color (obverse) and black and white (reverse) [repr. in "Master Paintings," exh. cat., Algranti, London, 1994, unpaginated, unnumbered, ill. (color, obverse)], dates it about 1540, "shortly after his fresco cycle in the village of Pisogne"; calls it a processional standard made for a Franciscan lay confraternity and "probably removed from its original location . . . following the Napoleonic suppression of religious orders in Italy"; states that the obverse was painted entirely by Romanino but that the reverse reveals workshop participation; suggests that the figures of the torturers may be influenced by Dürer's prints and that the figure of Christ may be inspired by Hans Baldung Grien's woodcut of Christ at the column; notes that Caravaggio later made reference to the figure of Christ in his painting of the same subject of 1607 (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples), and that Caravaggio's familiarity with the work supports the hypothesis that it was made for a major Brescian church such as San Francesco.

Everett Fahy. "Selected Acquisitions of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987–1991." Burlington Magazine 133 (November 1991), pp. 801, 804, colorpl. VI.

Alessandro Ballarin in Le siècle de Titien: L'âge d'or de la peinture à Venise. Exh. cat., Grand Palais. Paris, 1993, p. 449 [reprinted in Ballarin 2006, vol. 1, p. 275], attributes it to Romanino, mentioning it among works dating between 1540 and 1543.

Alessandro Nova. Girolamo Romanino. Turin, 1994, pp. 57, 308–9, no. 79, ill. front cover of dust jacket (color, obverse), colorpl. X (obverse), figs. 202 (detail, obverse), 203 (reverse), states that the composition of the Flagellation influenced Moretto's late "Christ at the Column" (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples).

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 104, ill. (obverse and reverse).

Keith Christiansen. "Thoughts on the Lombard Training of Caravaggio." Come dipingeva il Caravaggio. Ed. Mina Gregori. Milan, 1996, pp. 27–28, fig. 36.

Andrea Bayer. "North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 60 (Spring 2003), pp. 23–26, fig. 17 (color, obverse and reverse).

Andrea Bayer in Painters of Reality: The Legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy. Ed. Andrea Bayer. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2004, p. 110, fig. 53 (obverse) [Italian ed., "Pittori della realtà: le ragioni di una rivoluzione da Foppa e Leonardo a Caravaggio e Ceruti," (Milan), p. 127].

Nicholas Penny. The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings. Vol. 1, Paintings from Bergamo, Brescia and Cremona. London, 2004, p. 318.

Andreas Dehmer. Italienische Bruderschaftsbanner des Mittelalters und der Renaissance. PhD diss., Universität Regensburg. Munich, 2004, pp. 144–45, 180, 325, no. 63, ill. (obverse and reverse).

Francesco Frangi in Romanino: un pittore in rivolta nel Rinascimento italiano. Exh. cat., Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trent. Cinisello Balsamo, Milan, 2006, pp. 40, 47 n. 99.

Fabrizio Pietropoli in Romanino: un pittore in rivolta nel Rinascimento italiano. Exh. cat., Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trent. Cinisello Balsamo, Milan, 2006, p. 180.

Alessandro Ballarin. La "Salomè" del Romanino ed altri studî sulla pittura bresciana del Cinquecento. Ed. Barbara Maria Savy. Cittadella, 2006, vol. 1, p. 275; vol. 2, fig. 255.

Sybille Ebert-Schifferer. Caravaggio: Sehen—Staunen—Glauben. Munich, 2009, pp. 202, 281 n. 18, fig. 148 (color) [English ed., "Caravaggio: The Artist and His Work," Los Angeles, 2012, pp. 202, 281 n. 18, fig. 148 (color)], suggests Caravaggio may have known the picture.

Andrea Bayer. "Collecting North Italian Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." A Market for Merchant Princes: Collecting Italian Renaissance Paintings in America. Ed. Inge Reist. University Park, Pa., 2015, p. 89.

Alessio Cuccaro in Dentro Caravaggio. Ed. Rossella Vodret. Exh. cat., Palazzo Reale. Milan, 2017, p. 168.

Alessandra Cosmi in Caravaggio Napoli. Ed. Maria Cristina Terzaghi. Exh. cat., Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples. Milan, [2019], p. 126.

Francesco Frangi in Rediscoveries: Five Centuries of European Painting. Ed. Helen Record. Exh. cat., Robilant + Voena. New York, 2025, p. 20, fig. 3 (color).

Giuseppe Porzio in Caravaggio 2025. Ed. Francesca Cappelletti and Maria Cristina Terzaghi. Exh. cat., Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Venice, 2025, p. 259.

The frame may be Venetian and dates to about 1500–1520 (see figs. 1–4 above). This solemn carved giltwood and painted cassetta frame is made of pine and has applied walnut moldings on its face. An acanthus leaf with fillet and cavetto-carved sight edge lies within the narrow-painted frieze. A course of fluting rises to acanthus leaf carving before the fillet at the top edge. The painted vertical on the outside falls to acanthus carving at the back edge. Stiffly carved and later gessoed with overgilding and paint obscuring the walnut, this modified frame may have been assembled and enlarged using architectural cornice moldings from a Venetian sacristy ceiling.

Timothy Newbery with Cynthia Moyer 2020; further information on this frame can be found in the Department of European Paintings files