Late 15th century

The Last Supper; the Betrayal of Christ; Christ before Pilate; Christ Carrying the Cross

Biagio d'Antonio da Firenze

Italian (active Florence, Rome, and Faenza), documented 1476 - 1504

The word “predella” (an old Italian for “step”) refers to the wide, bottom tier of an altarpiece. Predellas are usually made from single, long pieces of wood and often are decorated with scenes of biblical stories or legends of saints that correspond to holy figures represented in the main part of the altarpiece. This panel is a good example of how predellas were broken up and reconfigured during the Napoleonic invasions of Italy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The four scenes were once part of a relatively small-scale altarpiece that probably showed the Crucifixion. The red wax stamps from the Camposanto on the backs of each image suggest that an art dealer had planned to sell them separately. (The Camposanto was a holding place for works of art from Tuscany that Napoleon planned to send to Paris.) Carlo Lasinio, the director of the Camposanto and a prominent printmaker, was most likely the dealer who had this predella broken into separate sections as his personal seal also appears on the back of the scenes.