The Young Christ
by MONTAGNA, Bartolomeo, Oil on panel, 37 x 28 cm
This is the primary signed and dated version of three panels representing the young Christ which Montagna executed in or around 1507 when the artist was in Verona.
The iconography of representations of the young Christ was well established in the Veneto in the 16th century. The inspiration for many of these representations probably depended on a lost prototype by Leonardo or on Albrecht D�rer’s Christ Among the Doctors, which was in Venice in the early 16th century.
The panel is signed, inscribed and dated on the ledge: CHRISTVS VIVIFICAT SVAM FIGVRAM . MDVII ./ MONTAGNAE CELEBRIS MANVS VENVSTAT. DIE. III MARCII.