Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, called Giampietrino, attributed to
Christ with the Symbol of the Holy Trinity
Oil on panel. 72 x 54.5 cm.
This unusual depiction of Christ holding aloft a symbol of the Holy Trinity can be linked to a painting now housed in the St. Petersburg Hermitage (inv. no. 1520). The work was first ascribed to Bernardino Luini, but Gustav Friedrich Waagen has since attributed it to Giampietrino, one of the most important members of the circle of Leonardo da Vinci.
Christ is depicted showing the viewer a triangle symbolising the Holy Trinity with His left hand, whilst gesturing towards Himself with His right. As Alessandro Vezzosi has pointed out, the fine, almost androgynous facial features and long, wavy hair are all clearly influenced by Leonardo, and the general appearance of the figure is strongly reminiscent of his St. John in the Musée du Louvre. The depiction could be based on a lost original by Leonardo himself, as Carlo Pedretti has discovered a metalpoint sketch of the left hand hidden under notes by the artist rendering it barely visible to the naked eye (cf. Alessandro Vezzosi´s catalogue entry in: Exhib. cat. Tokyo 2016, p. 142, no. 54).
Provenance
Private collection, West Germany.
Exhibitions
Leonardo da Vinci, Beyond the Visible, Tokyo Metropolitan EdoTokyo Museum, 2016, no. 54.