Outstanding at the Carrara Academy in Bergamo, new painting by Mantegna discovered.

TheCarrara Academy in Bergamo has announced an extraordinary discovery: a painting that had been lying in its storage rooms since 1866, and had hitherto been considered a copy, has now seen a change in attribution and has been assigned to the hand of the great Andrea Mantegna (Isola di Carturo, 1431 - Mantua, 1506), a Renaissance genius. It has always been thought that the canvas, a Resurrection of Christ that experts have dated to 1492, was a copy (probably workshop or circle artist) from the Venetian master. And for that reason, the work had never been displayed in the Carrara’s picture gallery itinerary.

The change in attribution resulted from new studies of the painting that noted the presence of a small cross on the lower edge of the painting, which had to have a continuation: it was thus determined that the missing portion of the painting is the Descent to Limbo, painted by Mantegna in 1492 and now held in a private collection after going to auction in 2003 (it was previously in the collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson in Boston). Scholars have noted a perfect match between the arch rocks that appear in Resurrection and the boulders that instead make up the apical part of Descent to Limbo.

The painting will now be included in the general catalog of Italian paintings of the 14th and 15th centuries that the Carrara Academy is publishing: the volume is edited by Giovanni Valagussa, conservator of the Carrara, and will be out in June, published by Officina Libraria. There will be 110 cards for as many paintings divided on a geographical and chronological basis. The discovery has also been confirmed by Keith Christiansen, one of the world’s leading experts on Mantegna.

Outstanding at the Carrara Academy in Bergamo, new painting by Mantegna discovered.

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