Donor kneeling before a Crucifix

Bordone, a competent businessman, invested his money widely in real estate, and commissions took him as far as France, to King Francis I (1494–1547). Besides his altar-pieces, Bordone’s clients liked his tasteful portraits and devotional pictures, a fine example being the "Donor kneeling before a Crucifix". The donor and the angel spreading a cloth containing a crucifix are shown large-scale in the foreground. The rendering of the landscape behind them shows the influence of Giorgione and Titian. In the centre, leaning against a tree, is a shepherd playing on a flute, surrounded by his sheep. The pastoral idyll – reminiscent of the Eclogues of Virgil (70–19 BC) and the "Arcadia" of Jacopo Sannazaro (1457–1530) – enhances the serenity of the group at the front. At the same time, the scene expresses Christ’s parable in the Gospel according to St John: “I am the good shepherd”. (John 10, 1–18)

Habersatter Thomas: Paris Bordone, Donor kneeling before a Crucifix, in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 110-111