National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: God the Father
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

lower right: on banner held by angel, letters upside down: GLORIA IN XELSIS DEO; center reverse, first two letters in monogram: J:B.[or] H:B. N:66. / Albano.

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

John Barnard [d. 1784], London;[1] by inheritance to his nephew, Thomas Hankey [d. 1799], Bedford Park, London; (his estate sale, Christie's, London, 7-8 June 1799, no. 36); James Akers, London; (his sale, Stanley, London, 28-29 April 1814 [originally scheduled for April 21-22], no. 127); George Spencer-Churchill, 5th duke of Marlborough [1766-1840], White Knights, near Reading, Berkshire; (his sale, Hawkes, at his residence, 26-28 October 1819, 3rd day, no. 13). (sale, Phillips, London, 12 October 1985, as Workshop of Albani). (Havari and Johns, London); sold 1986 to NGA.

[1] The painting is inscribed on the reverse "J:B, N:66 / Albano." The initials probably refer to John Barnard. The painting was possibly lot 35 in the estate sale of Jean de Julienne (1686-1766) held in Paris on 30 March 1767, and the days following: "François Albani, ou L'Albane. 35 Le Pere Eternal & la Hiérarchie Céleste. Tableau, riche de composition & fort de coloris, peint sure une toile de forme ovale, qui porte 17 pouces de haut, sur 22 de large." The measurements translate to 45.93 x 59.44 cm, very close to those of the National Gallery's painting. The engraver Pierre François Basan (1723-1797) is recorded as the buyer; the painting does not appear in his estate sale that was held 1-19 December 1798 in Paris. It is not known when the painting entered Barnard's collection; it is not itemized in the description of Barnard's collection in Thomas Martyn, The English Connoisseur: Containing an account of whatever is curious in painting, sculpture, &tc. in the palaces and seats of the nobility and principal gentry of England, both in town and country, 2 vols., London, 1766: 1:10-11. See also the letter from Martha Hepworth of the Getty Provenance Index to Eric Garberson, 8 July 1991, in NGA curatorial files.

Exhibition History

1986
The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1986-1987, not in cat.
1998
A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 38.

Bibliography

2009
Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 72, 329-333, color repro.

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