The dead Christ supported by two angels

Francesco Squarcione's The Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels, dated around 1425 and now in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin, is a work by the founder of the Paduan school and teacher of Andrea Mantegna, one of the most influential figures in north Italian Renaissance painting. Squarcione ran a large workshop in Padua that trained dozens of painters and was celebrated for his collection of antique sculpture and classical casts, which he used as teaching models. His dead Christ panel shows the Imago Pietatis type — the half-length figure of Christ supported by angels — transformed by the sculptural clarity and archaeological interest in antiquity that would define the Paduan school and, through Mantegna, profoundly influence north Italian painting.

Squarcione renders Christ and the supporting angels with a sculptural solidity that reflects his engagement with antique sculpture. The figures are modeled with strong three-dimensionality against a gold ground. Christ's face shows the marks of the Passion with controlled emotional force. The drapery has the angular quality associated with sculptural rather than painterly sources.