Lucio Fontana White Stations of the Cross. Station I: Jesus Is Condemned to Death

Conceived for the chapel of the Casa Materna Asili Nido Ada Bolchini Dell’Acqua in Milan, the white Via Crucis is the result of the close collaboration between the architect Marco Zanuso, who designed the building between 1953 and 1954, and Lucio Fontana, who conceived an ad hoc decoration for the chapel space. The work is composed of fourteen octagonal tiles in white glazed ceramic (inv. MD 2011.137.001-014): the white colour, which has an evident transcendental value, is marked in some tiles by intense chromatic traces of red, closely connected to the narrative drama. In the fourteen stations the scenes are summarized in a few narrative elements: the figures stand out against a smooth and shiny background surface briefly engraved by clear cuts, which appear to be the cuts of the famous cycle of Spatial Concepts. Attese, begun by the artist in 1958. Dating back to 1955, it was acquired in 2010 by the Lombardy Region and arrived at the Diocesan Museum in 2011.

In the first station the figure of Jesus is central, erect. Two soldiers are positioned at his sides, perpetrators of the beatings, and in the background, rendered through short incisions, some buildings can be glimpsed. The only chromatic accent, red, is reserved for Christ’s robe.

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Artwork details

Artist:: Lucio Fontana (Rosario di Santa Fé, Argentina 1899 – Comabbio (VA) 1968)
Title:: White Stations of the Cross. Station I: Jesus Is Condemned to Death
Date:: c. 1955
Medium and technique:: Glazed ceramic
Dimensions:: 41,5 × 21 × 10 cm
Inventory:: MD 2011.137.001
Location: Location: Lucio Fontana Room, ground floor

The gallery dedicated to Lucio Fontana brings together works by the artist placed on loan at the Diocesan Museum at different times, bearing witness to his remarkable work in religious sculpture in Milan. In 2000, the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo lent the full-scale model for the Altarpiece of the Assumption of the Virgin and a group of five plaster models submitted to the competition launched in 1950 for the cathedral’s fifth door. The competition’s theme, the Origins and History of the Cathedral, had been chosen by the Archbishop of Milan himself, Blessed Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster. After submitting a design that stood out in the first round for its inventive composition, Fontana was encouraged by the committee to enter the second round with changes to its form and composition. In 1952, Fontana shared first prize with Luciano Minguzzi, but in the following years, weary of the committee’s prolonged indecision, he abandoned the project. In 2011, the Fontana collection was expanded by the addition of the “White” Stations of the Cross of 1955, on loan from the Lombardy Region. The artist conceived this work as part of a project for the chapel of the Casa Materna Asili Nido Ada Bolchini Dell’Acqua, in Via Cascina Corba, Milan.