Marco Ruggeri, called Marco Zoppo
Susanna and the Elders / Susanna before the Judge
Tempera on panel laid down on canvas, laid down on panel. 58.5 x 171.7 cm.
The panel depicts two scenes in the form of a frieze from the Old Testament stories of Susanna. In the left-hand scene, framed by a rounded arch, one sees Susanna with the two elders. They indecently approach her and threaten to accuse her of adultery if she is not compliant. In the centre Susanna is led away as a result of the false accusations from the elders. On the right, also framed by an arch, stands Daniel, in armour and propped up by his shield, preventing Susanna's condemnation.
The panel was long considered a work by the Ferrarese artist Francesco del Cossa or his workshop and thought to be a pictorial decoration for a cassone, a chest, with the iconography interpreted as “Emperor Trajan and the Widow”. Bernard Berenson was the first to question the attribution and linked the panel to Marco Zoppo, an attribution which Mattia Vinco has confirmed. In addition, Vinco interpreted the panel as a spalliera, part of a wall panelling, in so far as the dimensions exceed those of a cassone. Furthermore, Vinco connected the panel with other paintings also attributed to Marco Zoppo: a now lost panel depicting the stoning by the elders as well as two fragments with court scenes in the Los Angeles County Museum (fig. 1, LACMA inv. M 81.259.1) and privately owned in Florence. In these panels, Vinco sees parts of a cycle of related scenes representing the judgements of King David and King Solomon which may have served as decoration of a courtroom.
The panel can be dated to the late 1460s, to Zoppo's late Bolognese years or the first period of his second stay in Venice. Marco Zoppo, born in Cento and apprenticed in Padua to Francesco Squarcione, was active in Padua, Venice and Bologna and was influenced by the painting of these North Italian art centres, as well as by Ferrara.
Provenance
Antonio Salvadori art dealers, Venice, 1915-1923. – Stibichhofen palace, Austria, before 1927. – Auctioned by Knight, Frank and Rutley, London, 27.05.1927, lot 5. - Collection of Van Moppes, Paris, 1932. – Galerie Jacques Goudstikker, 1927. - Expropriated by the Nazis. - Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, until 1948. – Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, The Hague (inv. no. 3265), on loan to the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, 1989–2006. – Restituted to the heirs of Joseph Henri Gosschalk in 2006. – Auctioned by Christie´s, New York, 19.4.2007, lot 2. – Acquired there by the present owner.
Literature
Paul Schubring: Cassoni, Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Frührenaissance, Leipzig 1915, p. 353-354, no. 567, illus. CXXV (Schule Francesco del Cossa). – Catalogue des nouvelles acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker, Amsterdam 1927, XXXIII, no. 21 (Francesco del Cossa?). – Frederik Schmidt-Degener: Italiaansche Kunst in nederlandsch Bezit, Amsterdam 1934, p. 60, no. 90 (studio of Francesco del Cossa). – Anna Maria Cetto: Der Berner Traian- und Herkinbald-Teppich, Jahrbuch der Bernischen Historischen Museums in Bern, Bern 1966, p. 188, no. T 5/4 (Francesco del Cossa). – Bernard Berenson: Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London 1968, vol. I, p. 132; vol. II, illus. 739 (Ferrarese school, before 1510). – Roberto Longhi: Nuovi Ampliamenti (1940-1955), in: Edizione delle opere complete di Roberto Longhi, Officina Ferrarese, V, Florenz 1956, p. 180 (Francesco del Cossa). – Christopher Wright: Paintings in Dutch Museums: An Index of Oil Paintings in Public Collections in the Netherlands by Artists Born Before 1870, London 1980, p. 84 (Fracesco del Cossa). – C. E. De Jong-Janssen: Catalogue of the Italian Paintings in the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht 1995, p. 157, illus. 78 (Ferrarese school, circa 1500). – Salvatore Settis: Due cassoni estensi, in: I Tatti Studies. Essays in the Renaissance, VI (1995), p. 31-82, p. 47, note 44, illus. 22 (attributed to Francesco del Cossa).