Provenance

Desirée Goudstikker von Saher

Saher, Desirée Goudstikker von

Dutch, born c. 1912

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About twenty colorfully dressed people fill a long room behind an old man and young woman standing before a bishop in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale or ash-white skin, and their clothing is in shades of golden yellow, raspberry pink, pumpkin orange, teal, sea blue, or pea green. The men wear tunics and leggings or robes, and some have turbans or feathered hats. The women wear gowns and white or sheer head scarves. The man at the center of the composition, the bishop, wears a pearl-white robe and conical mitre hat. His white hair falls past his shoulders, and he has a long, curly beard. A balding, bearded man and young woman with honey-blond hair stand in front of him. Each has traces of gold halos around their heads. They face each other, and each reaches out one hand, which the bishop in turn holds. The groups of men to our left and women to our right look in all directions, though few look at the couple at the center. An older woman at the rightmost edge of the group stands out. Her gray-toned face is lined, and she wears a black robe. Her eyes are screwed shut, her mouth downturned, and she holds up one hand, palm out. One man in the group to our left plays a lute and others break sticks. More broken sticks are strewn on the ground around the men. The walls of the room are pale lavender or plum purple.
Luca Signorelli, The Marriage of the Virgin, c. 1490/1491, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.39

The Marriage of the Virgin

Luca Signorelli · c. 1490/1491 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.39

Bibliography

1946

  • Rousseau, Theodore. Consolidated Interrogation Report: The Goering collection. 1946: 71-74, attachments 17-18, 22-29 [copy: National Gallery Archives, S. Lane Faison Papers, Box 1]

1994

  • Nicholas, Lynn. H. The Rape of Europa. New York, 1994:83-85, 104-107, 422-423.

1998

  • Riding, Alan. "Heirs Claim Art Lost to Nazis in Amsterdam." The New York Times 12 January 1998