National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Giovanni Borgherini and His Tutor
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

lower center on scroll: NON VALET. / INGENIVM.NISI / FACTA/ VALEBVNT (Talent has no worth unless accomplishment follows)

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Probably sons of the sitter, Giovanni Borgherini [b. 1496], Florence, and then by inheritance in the Borgherini family until at least 1568;[1] probably by inheritance to the sitter's great-great-grandson, Cavaliere Pier-Francesco Borgherini [1637-1718]; his descendants or private collection, Milan;[2] sold 1923 to Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd Bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, until at least 1932;[3] (Thos. Agnew and Sons, London); purchased 1960 by Michael Straight, Alexandria, Virginia;[4] gift 1974 to NGA.

[1] G. Vasari, Le Vite, 1568 (Milanesi ed., vol. IV, 1879: 94): "In Fiorenza è di man sua in cas de' figliuoli di Giovan Borgherini il ritratto d'esso Giovanni, guando era giovane in Venezia, e nel medesimo quadro il maestro che le guidava; che non si può veder in due teste nè più bella tinta di ombre." ("In Florence there is by him [Giorgione] in the house of the sons of Giovanni Borgherini the portrait of the later, when he was young, in Venice, and in the same picture the master who taught him; one cannot see in two heads better flesh coloring or more beautiful nuances of shading." Translation in Shapley 1979: 217)

[2] According to Brockwell (see note 3), the painting "was purchased in 1923 from a gentleman in Milan whose great-grandfather received it from a great-nephew of Cavaliere Pier-francisco Borgherini who, as we have seen, died in 1718." The dealer's memorandum on the painting, supplied to NGA's donor in 1960, says "This picture was purchased by Sir Herbert Cook in 1923 from a private collection in Milan where it had been since 1718 when it had been purchased from Cavaliere Pier Francesco Borgherini, the great great grandson of Giovanni Borgherini, the sitter in the picture." Shapley 1979: 218 describes the transaction as "acquired in London in 1925 after being purchased in Milan in 1923 from a descendant of [Cavaliere Borgherini]."

[3] M. W. Brockwell, Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, London, 1932: 69-70.

[4] The painting was introduced to Mr. Straight in February 1960 by then-director of the NGA, John Walker. See the correspondence between Walker and Straight in NGA curatorial files.

Exhibition History

1953
Loan Exhibition of Thirty-Nine Masterpieces of Venetian Painting. In Honour of the Coronation, and In Aid of the King George VI Memorial Fund, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, 1953, no. 25, as by The Master of the Pitti Three Ages.
1955
Italian Art from the 13th to the 17th Centuries, Birmingham (England) Museum and Art Gallery, 1955, no. 72, as by the Master of the Pitti Three Ages.
1998
A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 22, fig. 53.
2000
Dipingere la Musica: Strumenti in posa nell'arte dal Quattrocento al Seicento, Centro Culturale Santa Maria della Pietà, Cremona; Kunsthistorisches Museum Art Center, Palais Harrach, Vienna, 2000-2001, no. IV.10.

Bibliography

1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:217-218, II:pl. 148, 148A, as Circle of Giorgione.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 176, repro.
1997
Anderson, Jaynie. Giorgione: The Painter of "Poetic Beauty". New York, 1997: 314-315, repro.
2004
Danziger, Elon. "he Cook Collection: Its Founder and Its Inheritors." The Burlington Magazine 146, no. 1216 (July 2004): 455.

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