Seven Famous Figures from Ancient History
c. 1442
Artist, Netherlandish, active c. 1435 - 1470
Artwork overview
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Medium
pen and brown ink with watercolor, heightened with white, on vellum
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 31.4 x 20.1 cm (12 3/8 x 7 15/16 in.)
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Accession
2006.11.68
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Presumably, because of the French inscriptions, an early French collection; (Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London); sold to William Morris, Kelmscott House, 20 December 1894; Charles Fairfax Murray [1849-1919], 1895; (his sale, London, Sotheby's, 18 July 1919, lot 50); purchased (via Bernard Quaritch Ltd., London) by Sir Sydney Cockerell (sale, London, Sotheby's, 2 July 1958, lot 22); Rudolf Drey (sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 July 1977, lot 152); purchased by Ian Woodner, New York; by inheritance to his daughters, Andrea and Dian Woodner, New York, 1990; given by Andrea Woodner in 2006.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1896
Catalogue of an Exhibition of English Medieval Paintings and Illustrated Manuscripts, Society of Antiquaries, London, 1896.
1978
Antiquity in the Renaissance, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, 1978, no. 101 (as Florentine School).
1983
Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu and tour, 1983-85, no. 3 (as Florentine School).
1986
Dibujos de los siglos XIV al XX: Colección Woodner, Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1986-87, no. 86 (as Italian or French possibly Jean Fouquet?).
Meisterzeichnungen aus Sechs Jahrhunderten: Die Sammlung Ian Woodner, Haus der Kunst, Munich and Vienna, 1986, no. 73 (as Italian or French possibly Jean Fouquet?).
1987
Master Drawings: The Woodner Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1987, no. 72 (as Italian or French School possibly Jean Fouquet?).
1990
Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, no. 89 (as Italian or French School possibly Jean Fouquet?).
1995
The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996, no. 4.
2006
Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007.
2016
Recent Acquisitions of Dutch and Flemish Drawings, NGA, 2016.
2017
The Woodner Collections: Master Drawings from Seven Centuries, NGA, 2017.
Bibliography
1938
Berenson, Bernard. The Drawings of the Florentine Painters. 3 vols. Chicago, 1938: II: no. 164c (as School of Fra Angelico).
Hoff, Ursula. "Meditations in Solitude." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. I (1938): 292-94.
1952
Longhi, Roberto. "Ancora sulla cultura del Fouquet." Paragone 27 (1952): 56-57.
Toesca, Ilaria. "Gli 'Uomini famosi' della Bibioteca Cockerell." Paragone III (January 1952): 16-20.
1953
Saxl, Fritz and Hans Meier. Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des Lateinischen Mittelalters, III: Handschriften in Englischen Bibliotheken. London, 1953: I: 279-280.
1956
Grassi, Luigi. Il disegno italiano dal Trecento al Seicento. Rome, 1956: 86.
1958
Arte Iombarda dai Visconti agli Sforza, Exh. cat. Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1958, mentioned under no. 202.
1959
Van Regteren Altena, J.Q. "Een bladzijde uit een Italiaanse codex van omsteeks 1445." Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 7 (1959): 82-83.
1961
Berenson, Bernard. I disegni dei pittori fiorentini. Rev. and amplified edn. 3 vols. Milan, 1961: no. 164c.
1962
Scheller, R.W. "Uomini famosi." Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 10 (1962): 56-57.
Virch, Claus. Master Drawings in the Collection of Walter C. Baker. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1962, mentioned under no. 1.
1965
Popham, A.E. and K.M. Fenwick. European Drawings in the Collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Toronto, 1965: mentioned under no. 1
1966
Simpson, W.A. "Cardinal Giordano Orsini (+1438) as a Prince of the Church and a Patron of the Arts: A Contemporary Panegyric and Two Descriptions of the Lost Frescoes in Monte Giordano." Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes 29(1966): 137, #10.
1967
Laclotte, Michel. "Rencontres Franco-Italiennes au milieu du XVe siècle." Acta Historiae Artium Academiae Scientaiarum Hungaricae 13 (1967) 35.
1968
Gómez-Moreno, Carmen. Medieval Art from Private Collections. Exh. cat. The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1968-89, mentioned under no. 19.
1969
Laskin, Myron. European Drawings from the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1969: mentioned under no. 1.
1970
Toesca, Ilaria. "Di nuovo sulla 'Cronaca Cockerell.'" Paragone 239 (1970): 62-66.
1972
Mode, Robert L. "Masolino, Uccello and the Orsini 'Uomini Famosi.'" The Burlington Magazine 114 (June 1972): 320.
1977
Bologna, Ferdinando. Napoli e le Rotte Mediterranee della Pittura da Alfonso il Magnanimo a Ferdinando il Cattolico. Naples, 1977: 56-69, 73-75.
1980
Degenhart, Bernhard and Annegrit Schmitt. Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450. Berlin, 1980: vol. 2, part II, under 714, 381, 382, no. 9.
1983
Lombardi, Sandro. Jean Fouquet. Florence, 1983: 71, 79, 81.
1986
Sricchia Santoro, Fiorella. Antonello e l'Europa. Milan (1986): 31.
Sricchia Santoro, Fiorella. Review of Charles Sterling, Enguerrand Quarton le peintre de la Pietà d'Avignon and M. Laclotte and D Thiébaut, L'Ecole d'Avignon in Prospettiva 44 (1986): 83.
1988
Boskovits, Miklós. Arte in Lombardia tra Gotico e Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Milan (1988): 216-219.
1989
Reynaud, Nicole. "Barthélemy d'Eyck avant 1450." Revue de l'Art. 84 (1989): 29, 31, fig. 30.
1993
Avril, François, and Nicole Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520. Paris, 1993: under no. 121, 225-226.
Thiébaut, Dominique. Le Christ à la colonne d'Antonello de Messine. Exh. cat. Paris, Louvre, 1993: 31-32.
Joannides, Paul. Massaccio and Masolino. A Complete Catalogue. London (1993): 453, pl. 153.
1995
The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995-1996: no. 4.
Inscriptions
by later hand, in pen and brown ink, various notations with each figure in Latin, repeated in French in 16th century hand
Wikidata ID
Q64537140