Study for a Ceiling with the Personification of Counsel
before c. 1762
Artist, Venetian, 1696 - 1770
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 32
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 27 x 49 cm (10 5/8 x 19 5/16 in.)
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Accession
1939.1.100
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Possibly Edward Cheney [1803-1884], London, after 1860 Badger Hall, Shropshire;[1] possibly by inheritance to his brother-in-law, Colonel Alfred Capel-Cure [1826-1896]; by inheritance to his nephew, Francis Capel-Cure [1854-1933], Badger Hall, Shropshire.[2] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[3] purchased 1932 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] National Gallery of Art, Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture, Washington, D.C., 1941: 192, and a note in the Kress records, NGA curatorial records, placed the painting "formerly in the Capel-Cure Collection," most of which was inherited from Cheney as recounted by George Knox, Catalogue of the Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2nd edition, London, 1975: 4-5. Gustav Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1857: 173, noted that Cheney had a collection of nineteen sketches for ceilings executed for churches in Venice, and 171, that Cheney acquired most of his collection while resident in Venice. A number of these were sold at Christie, Manson and Woods, London, on 29 April 1885; the present painting may have been included in lot 170, "Three designs for ceilings."
[2] Placed in this collection by NGA 1941: 192, and a note in the Kress records, NGA curatorial files. The painting does not appear in the Francis Capel-Cure sale held at Christie, Manson and Woods, London, 6 May 1905, or in the list given by Eduard Sack, Giambattista und Domenico Tiepolo. Ihr Leben und Ihre Werke, Hamburg, 1910: 223, of paintings then owned by Francis Capel-Cure. Perhaps Sack had rejected the attribution or was not aware of the painting's existence.
[3] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII Century, London, 1973: 148; Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:442.
[4] A typed notation in the Kress records, NGA curatorial files, states that the painting was acquired in 1932 without stating from whom; see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2020.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1993
Giambattista Tiepolo: Master of the Oil Sketch, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1993, no. 53, repro., as The Apotheosis of a Poet.
Loan for display with permanent collection, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1993-1994.
Bibliography
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 192, no. 211, as The Apotheosis of a Poet.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 243, repro. 194, as The Apotheosis of a Poet.
1946
Longhi, Roberto. Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana. Florence, 1946: 70, fig. 165.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 127, as The Apotheosis of a Poet.
1967
Morassi, Antonio. "Antonio Guardi." In Sensibilità e razionalità del '700. Corso internazionale di alta cultura, 7, Venice 1965. Edited by Vittore Branca. Florence, 1967: 67.
1968
Pallucchini, Anna. L'opera completa di Giambattista Tiepolo. Milan, 1968: 133, no. 288, repro.
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 113, repro., as The Apotheosis of a Poet.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 197.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 148, fig. 288.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 336, repro., as The Apotheosis of a Poet.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:442-443; 2:pl. 320, as The Apotheosis of a Poet.
1984
Knab, Eckhart. "Appunti su alcuni disegni veneziani dell'Albertina." In Interpretazioni veneziani. Studi di storia dell'arte in onore di Michelangelo Muraro. Edited by David Rosand. Venice, 1984: 418.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 388, repro., as The Apotheosis of a Poet.
1993
Brown, Beverly Louise. Giambattista Tiepolo: Master of the Oil Sketch. Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. Milan and New York, 1993: 296-298, no. 53, color repro.
Gemin, Massimo, and Filippo Pedrocco. Giambattista Tiepolo. Venice, 1993: 465, no. 482, repro.
Longyear, Teresa. "Giambattista Tiepolo: The Energetic and Fluent Brush." In Beverly Louise Brown, Giambattista Tiepolo: Master of the Oil Sketch. Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth. Milan and New York, 1993: 69, 74.
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: 260-264, color repro. 263.
2002
Pedrocco, Filippo. Giambattista Tiepolo. Milan, 2002: no. 253, repro.
Wikidata ID
Q20178221