National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Crucifixion
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

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Provenance

Possibly painted for the main of the church of Sant'Agostino, Matelica (Macerata).[1] Citernesi, Florence; purchased May 1883 by Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London;[2] sold February 1894 to Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey; by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold June or July 1947 to (Gualtiero Volterra, London) for (Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, Florence);[3] sold July 1948 to the Samuel H. Kress Collection, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] According to a convincing hypothesis first formulated dubitatively by Mario Salmi, "Chiosa Signorelliana," Commentari 4 (1953): 114, and subsequently confirmed by Laurence B. Kanter, "The Late Works of Luca Signorelli and His Followers, 1498-1559," Ph.D. diss., New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, 1989: 131-136, and Laurence B. Kanter and David Franklin, "Some Passion Scenes by Luca Signorelli after 1500," MittKIF 35 (1991): 171-192. At first Mario Salmi (Luca Signorelli, Novara, 1953: 59) suggested the possible provenance of the painting from a lost Lamentation over the Dead Christ mentioned by Vasari (Vite, Milanesi edition, 3:686) as painted for a church at Monte Santa Maria. The scholar evidently abandoned this idea and it was not taken into consideration by others.

[2] According to Robinson's account book (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; copy of relevant page in NGA curatorial files). See also Tancred Borenius, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond & Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt. I. Italian Schools, London, 1913: 1:no. 53.

[3] See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England. Volterra was Contini-Bonacossi's agent in London. An expertise written in Italian (not in English, like those made for pictures already acquired by the Kress Foundation), dated April 1948 and signed by Longhi (copy in NGA curatorial files), was made in all probability for Contini-Bonacossi, to whom Longhi was permanent advisor, shortly after the acquisition of the painting.

[4] The Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini-Bonacossi on 7 June 1948 for a group of twenty-eight paintings, including the Signorelli; the offer was accepted on 11 July 1948 (see copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History

1893
Exhibition of the Work of Luca Signorelli and His School, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1893, no. 15.
1946
Loan Exhibition of the Cook Collection of Primitive and Early Renaissance Paintings (1350-1550); venues: municipal art galleries of Norwich, Sheffield, Leicester, Blackpool, Manchester, Southampton, Brighton; tour by Art Exh. Bureau, 1946-1947, no. 13.
2012
Luca Signorelli "de ingegno et spirito pelegrino", Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, 2012, no. 50, repro.

Bibliography

1951
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 64, no. 21, repro.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 90, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 122
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 109, repro.
1968
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 96-97, fig. 232.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 324, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:427-428, II:pl. 306
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 108, no. 81, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 372, repro.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 643-648, color repro.

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