The 2024–2025 conservation of Paris Bordone’s Deposed Christ Supported by Angels was generously sponsored by Kathryn Ploss.

In 1709, Antonio Biondini del fu Andrea, a soap maker originally from Trento, bequeathed the painting to the Serenissima Repubblica. In his will, Biondini specified that “this painting by Paris Bordone, a highly esteemed painter,” should be placed in the room of the Capi of the Council of Ten, on the wall directly in front of their seats. The canvas remained in that room until at least 1778-1783, when it was restored. In 1808, Pietro Edwards selected it for the Museo di Belle Arti in Venice; however, it ended up in the Palazzo Reale, where it stayed until 1847. By 1900, it was adorning the Cappella del Doge.

Some believe that Bordone painted this canvas for the Canececchi family in Treviso, where in 1648 Marco Boschini described seeing “a dead Christ with two angels holding him.” However, it should be noted that Bordone’s composition was quite popular, and at least two replicas by his assistants are known to exist: one formerly in the Gaggia Collection in Venice, and another at the Moravská Galerie in Brno dating to c. 1545-1555. Although the painting’s original provenance remains uncertain, its authorship is confirmed by Bordone’s body of work. Notably, his Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, created between 1548 and 1551 and housed at the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, and the Sleeping Venus at the Galleria Borghese in Rome, dated to the late 1550s, provide strong stylistic parallels. This comparative analysis implies a dating for the Deposed Christ Supported by Angels in the 1550s.

Nearly a century later, Bordone’s painting inspired the French artist Nicolas Poussin, who adapted both its composition and the Christ’s pose for his Echo and Narcissus, painted between 1627-1628 and currently at the Louvre Museum, Paris.

The 2024–2025 conservation treatment addressed several condition issues, including a thorough surface cleaning to remove the thick layers of surface grime and oxidized varnish that had given the work a darkened and yellowed appearance.  Areas of lifting and buckled paint were meticulously secured, and small areas of abrasions that had resulted in losses to the pictorial surface were integrated with reversable conservation colors and glazes. A final protective surface varnish was applied as a final step in the treatment. The gilded frame was also treated to repair areas of lifting and flaking gilding, as well as removing surface grime.

Paris Bordone (1500 – 1571)
Deposed Christ Supported by Angels
1550s, oil on canvas
80 x 225 cm
Palazzo Ducale

Donati, Andrea. Paris Bordone. Catalogo generale. Cremona: Edizioni dei Soncino, 2014

Canova, Giordana. Paris Bordon. Venice: Edizioni Alfieri, 1964

Paris Bordon. Milan: Electa Editrice, 1984