National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Venus Adorned by the Graces
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  • Exhibition History
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Provenance

Alessandro Tanari [1548-1639], Bologna, by 1638;[1] purchased 1828 from the Casa Tanari, Bologna, by (James Irvine) for Sir William Forbes, 7th Bt. of Pitsligo [1759-1828];[2] by descent to his son, Sir John Forbes, 8th Bt. [1804-1866]; (sale of his father's pictures at Mr. Rainey's, London, 2 June 1842, no. 29).[3] Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, of Novar, by 1854;[4] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 1 June 1878, no. 19); bought by "Dyer" [probably the dealer and restorer William Dyer] for Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London;[5] sold 1878 to Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey;[6] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd Bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Fredercik 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 February 1948 to (Gualtiero Volterra, London) for (Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, Florence);[7] purchased 1949 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[8] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] Inventory of May 1640 by Vicenzo Pisani (Archivio di Stato di Bologna), published by Luisa Ciammitti, Tre artisti nella Bologna dei Bentivoglio. Ercole Robert: La cappella Garganelli in San Pietro, Bologna, 1985: 204, 215. Pisani described the painting thus: "l'altro d'Annibale Carracci nel quale è dipinta Diana con le sue Vergini che gli acconciano la testa a bon'hora," and "Diana con altre figure che si fa conciare la testa ad un fonte di mano d'Annibale Carracci." Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice. Vite de' Pittore Bolognesi con aggiunte correzioni e note inedite dall-autore de Giampietro Zanooti e di altri scrittori, 2 vols., Bologna, 1841: 1:357 (reprinted 1974, originally published 1678), also misread the subject as "Diana con le sue Vergini, che le acconciano il capo presso ad una fontana, e diversi amorini," as did Marcello Oretti at the end of the eighteenth century: in Marcello Oretti, "Le pitture...della Città di Bologna", 3 vols., Biblioteca Comunale Bologna, MS B104, in Marcello Oretti e il patrimonio artistico privato bolognese (Document 22), ed. by Emilia Calbi and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian, Bologna, 1984: 90. Thomas Martyn, who had visited Italy in 1787, referred to the painting as "Venus attired by the Graces" (Thomas Martyn, A Tour through Italy, London, 1791: 110).

[2] Hugh Brigstocke, William Buchanan and the Nineteenth-Century Art Trade, London, 1982: 27, 481.

[3] The painting was probably sold through the efforts of William Buchanan, who was called in to dispose of the pictures remaining from the unsuccessful 1842 auction of Sir William's collection (Brigstocke 1982: 30).

[4] Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols., London, 1854: 2:135. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings...in the Collection of the Late Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, Esq. of Novar, London, 1865: 4.

[5] Catalogue of the Ancient Portion of the Celebrated Collection of Pictures Known as the Novar Collection...which will be sold by Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods on Saturday June 1, 1878, London, 1878: 6, with marginal notation of sale to "Mr. Dyer" (in the NGA copy). The identification of William Dyer was kindly suggested by Martha Hepworth of the Getty Provenance Index (letter of 26 April 1990 in NGA curatorial files). The painting sold for 180 guineas. In his account book (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), Robinson writes that the painting "bought by Dyer for me" (copy of releveant page in NGA curatorial files).

[6] Tancred Borenius, A Catalogue of the Paintings in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt., London, 1913: 100, no. 85; Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart., London, 1932: 68, no. 85. A Toilet of Venus by Annibale Carracci, 51 x 64 1/2 inches, was in the sale of "N. N." in 1886 according to George Redford, Art Sales, 2 vols., London, 1888: 223. Martha Hepworth of the Getty Provenance Index has suggested that this is one of the many mistakes in Redford (letter of 26 April 1990).

[7] 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.

[8] The Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini-Bonacossi on 4 March 1949 for a group of twenty-one paintings, including the Carracci; the offer was accepted on 10 March 1949 (see copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History

1908
Winter Exhibition, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1908, no. 20.
1986
The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986-1987, no. 93, color repro.
2000
Faszination Venus: Bilder einer Göttin von Cranach bis Cabanel, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne; Alte Pinakothek, Munich; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, 2000-2001, no. 15, repro.
2002
Tiziano/Rubens. Venus ante el espejo, Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2002-2003, no. 3, repro.
2012
Da Vermeer a Kandinsky. Capolavori dai musei del mondo a Rimini, Castel Sismondo, Rimini, 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1841
Malvasia, Carlo Cesare. Felsina Pittrice. Vite de' Pittori Bolognesi con aggiunte correzioni e note inedite deel'autore di Giampietro Zanotti e di altri scrittori. 2 vols. Bologna, 1841: 1:357 (originally published 1678, reprinted 1974).
1924
Voss, Herrmann. Die Malerei des Barock in Rom. Berlin, 1924: 503.
1932
Brockwell, Maurice W. Abridged Catalogye of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook. London, 1932: no. 85.
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: 136, no. 58, repro.
1957
Longhi, Roberto. "Annibale 1584?" Paragone 89 (1957): 41.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 214, repro.
1961
Seymour 1961 (Kress), 138, repro. pl. 129.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 23.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 16, repro.
1971
Posner, Donald. Annibale Carracci. A Study in the Reform of Italian Painting Around 1590. 2 vols. London, 1971: 1:51, 2:35, pl. 85.
1972
Pepper, Stephen. "I limiti del positivismo: 'L'Annibale Carracci' di Donald Posner." Arte Illustrata 5 (1972): 267.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 73-74, fig. 132.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 56, repro.
1976
Malafarina, Gianfranco. L'opera completa di Annibale Carracci. Milan, 1976: 75, no. 79, repro., color pl. 37.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:121-122, II:pl. 83.
1980
Anderson, Jaynie. "Giorgione, Titian and the Sleeping Venus." In Tiziano e Venezia. Convegno internazionale di studi. Venezia, 1976. Vicenza, 1980: 340.
1983
Freedberg, Sydney. Circa 1600: A Revolution of Style in Italian Painting. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1983: 33-36, pl. 46.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 313, no. 411, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 76, repro.
1986
Christiansen, Keith. "Lorenzo Lotto and the Tradition of Epithalamic Painting." Apollo 124 (1986): 171.
1996
De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 49-54, color repro. 51.

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