National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Niccolini-Cowper Madonna
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

center right on border of Madonna's bodice: MDVIII.R.V.PIN (1508 Raphael of Urbino painted it)

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Niccolini family, Casa Niccolini, Florence, by 1677;[1] sold after 1772 to Johann Joseph Zoffany [d. 1810]; sold c. 1775 to George Nassau Clavering-Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper [d. 1789], Panshanger, Hertford, England; by inheritance to George Augustus Clavering-Cowper, 4th Earl Cowper [d. 1799], Panshanger; by inheritance to Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Clavering-Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper [d. 1837], Panshanger; by inheritance to George Augustus Frederick Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper [d. 1856], Panshanger; by inheritance to Francis Thomas De Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper and 7th Baron Lucas [d. 1905], Panshanger and Wrest Park, Bedford, England; by inheritance to his widow, Katrine Cecilia Compton Cowper, Countess Cowper [d. 1913], Panshanger; by inheritance to Lady Ethel Desborough, granddaughter of the 6th Earl, Panshanger; sold 1928 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] sold November 1928 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 30 December 1930 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Francesco Bocchi and Giovanni Cinelli, Le Belezze della Citte di Firenze, Florence, 1677: 408.

[2] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:389-391.

[3] Dates of Mellon acquisition and deed to Mellon Trust are according to David Finley's notebook donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives.

Exhibition History

1816
Possibly Pictures of the Italian and Spanish Schools, British Institution, London, 1816, no. 32, as The Virgin and Infant Savior.
1841
Possibly British Institution, London, 1841, no. 28, as Virgin and Child.
1857
Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Ancient Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1857, no. 141.
1881
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1881, no. 152.
1909
National Loan Exhibition in Aid of National Gallery Funds, Grafton Galleries, London, 1909-1910, no. 66, repro.
1910
Second National Loan Exhibition. Woman and Child in Art, Grafton Galleries, London, 1913-1914, no. 35, repro.
1983
Raphael and America, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983, no. 81, repro.

Bibliography

1928
Kunstauktion 2 supplement (8 July 1928): repro.
1930
Valentiner, W. R. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. New York, 1930: not paginated, no. 20, repro.
1941
Duveen 1941, fig. 135.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 162-163.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 173.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 28, repro.
1951
Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 56-58, repro.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 38, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 306, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 107
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:128, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 95, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 280, repro.
1976
Alsop, Joseph. The Rare Art Traditions: The History of Art Collecting and Its Linked Phenomena Wherever These Have Appeared. Bollingen series 35, no. 27. New York, 1976: 452.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:389-391, II:pl. 278
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 176, no. 198, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 325, repro.
1991
Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 100, 269, color repro.
1994
Beck, James H. Raphael. New York, 1994: 22, repro.
1996
Meyer zur Capellen, Jürg. Raphael in Florence. London, 1996: 174, no. 175, repro.
2011
Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepeneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 125-126, fig. 4.6, 155, fig. 4.10, 215-216, 226, 233 n. 109, 313.

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