Provenance

Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd bt.

British, 1868 - 1939

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This painting is a portrait of a person depicted from the waist up, turned slightly to the right with one hand raised to their chest. The person has pale skin, rosy cheeks, a thin mustache, and long, curly brown hair. They are wearing a loose, long-sleeved blue garment on top of a billowing white shirt. The background features a dark interior space with an arched window on the right, through which a landscape with trees and a distant spire is visible under a blue sky.
Ary de Vois, The Artist as Lover, c. 1660s, oil on copper, Nell and Robert Weidenhammer Fund, 2025.37.1

The Artist as Lover

Ary de Vois · c. 1660s · oil on copper ·  Accession ID  2025.37.1

Shown from the hips up, a young boy with pale, peachy skin wears a voluminous, black cloak that nearly falls off his shoulders over a rose-pink tunic, with a sword hanging from one hip in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our right, and he looks off to our left with dark brown eyes under gently arched brows. He has a wide nose, and his pink lips are closed with the corners pulled slightly back. His skin is smooth and his cheeks slightly flushed. His dark brown hair is cut close and comes to a point in front of his ears. His tunic is painted with dusky pink highlights against wine-red to suggest a sheen across a vertically striped, leafy pattern. The garment has a high neck lined with a white ruffle and has a row of buttons down the front. His black coat has wide lapels that reach beyond his shoulders, and the puffy sleeves gather on his arms. The coat has a silvery-white cross over the chest to our right. The left and right arms of the cross are lost in the folds but the arms at the top and bottom are forked at the ends. The boy’s pine-green belt is edged with gold, and the hilt of the sword is angled toward us on his left hip, to our right. He holds one fawn-brown glove in his right hand, to our left, and his other arm disappears behind the folds of his coat. The background is deep olive green, almost brown. The artist signed the painting with dark paint near the right edge of the canvas near the boy’s shoulder, “TITANVS F.”
Titian, Ranuccio Farnese, 1541-1542, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.11

Ranuccio Farnese

Titian · 1541-1542 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.2.11

Shown from the chest up against a black background, two men with peachy skin, one holding a brass-colored sphere made up of interlocking bands, fill this horizontal portrait painting. To our left, a boy or young man looks at us with dark eyes and his coral-pink lips are parted. His curly brown hair falls to his shoulders, and he wears a floppy, denim-blue hat. His emerald-green tunic is lined around the neck, shoulders, and down the front with bands of ruby red, and the neck is tied with a pale purple ribbon. A white shirt underneath shows at the neck and down a slit along the shoulder we can see. Along the bottom edge of the composition, the boy grips a paint brush, a quill pen, a flute, and a compass in his left fist. The man to our right leans toward the boy almost in profile. The second man has ash-brown, curly hair and the suggestion of a short beard on his chin. He has hooded eyes, a prominent nose, and his downturned lips are also parted. He wears a honey-yellow tunic over a white undergarment. A swath of scarlet red over his left shoulder, to our right, could be a cloak. In the space between the people, he holds up the armillary sphere, made up of overlapping bands to create an orb, in his right hand, on our left. A long, white scroll curls around the handle of the sphere, the man’s hand, and down near his wrist. The scroll is inscribed, “NON VALET. INGENIVM.NISI FACTA VALEBVNT.” He looks at the sphere and points to it with his other hand.
Giorgione, Giovanni Borgherini and His Tutor, oil on canvas, Gift of Michael Straight, 1974.87.1

Giovanni Borgherini and His Tutor

Giorgione · · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1974.87.1

Two women and a man support the gray, lifeless body of a nearly nude man along a stone ledge in this vertical painting. The people have pale skin, except for the dead man at the center, Jesus, who has ash-white skin with dark shadows around his closed eyes. He has a long straight nose, and his lips are slightly parted. He has a brown beard, and his long, wavy hair falls away from his face. A white cloth wraps across his hips, and blood trickles from a gash over his right ribs and holes in his feet. A woman and man prop him up on either side, each holding Jesus by a limp arm, and each has a faint, gold halo encircling their heads. To our left, the woman holds her face close to his, her brows deeply furrowed and her mouth wide open, teeth showing. Her forehead, chin, and neck are covered by a white veil, worn under navy-blue cloak that covers her head and body. The cloak falls open over one arm and a bent knee to reveal her long-sleeved, lighter blue dress. On Jesus’s other side, a cleanshaven man with curly brown hair holds Jesus’s arm with both hands. The man’s eyes squint with tears as he tips his head toward Jesus. His pink lips are parted, and the corner of the mouth we can see is pulled down. He wears an emerald-green, long-sleeved tunic under a vivid red cloth that wraps around his right arm, waist, and left leg. The fourth and final person is a woman sitting on the ground, her arms wrapped tightly around Jesus’s crossed ankles. She sits with one foot tucked under her body and the other leg out straight. Waist-length, wavy, auburn-brown hair falls freely over her shoulders and across her face, but we can see her downturned, open mouth and nearly closed eyes. She wears a rose-pink dress, cinched at the waist. A brown cloth wraps around her waist and right leg. A cylindrical, lidded, white jar sits on the dirt ground nearby. The group is arranged in front a thigh-high stone ledge, except for the man in green and red, who steps into what is presumably the coffin. A rocky outcropping to our right has a cave-like opening with grasses and growth along the top. The landscape beyond has a dirt path winding between pine-green hills dotted with trees. Two slate-blue buildings perch atop one hill. White clouds float across the blue sky above.
Moretto da Brescia, Pietà, 1520s, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.10

Pietà

Moretto da Brescia · 1520s · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.2.10

Set in a landscape, a young man holding a broken lance lunges over the neck of his horse to look at the body of a forest-green dragon on the ground beneath them, while a young woman looks on from our left in this vertical painting. The man and woman both have light skin. The horse and rider are in the center, facing our right, and the man’s scarlet-red cape flutters upward. His right arm, to our left, is bent sharply as he thrusts the shard of the red-and-white striped lance down. His eyebrows are drawn together, and his mouth is open, the corner we can see pulled down. Form-fitting, royal-purple armor protects his torso, and he wears a bronze and silver helmet topped with red and white feathers. His muscular arms are bare, as is the knee we can see between a celery-green skirt and a gray sandal that covers most of that shin. His saddle and saddle blanket are blueberry blue. The brown horse has a dark mane and tail. It lunges forward and down with mouth wide open and teeth bared, so it trounces or pins the dragon beneath its front legs. The dragon is curled in a ball on the lower right side of the composition with its head wrenched backward onto its body. Crimson-red drops of blood drip from its gaping mouth. The young woman stands on the left side of the composition with one knee kneeling on a tall rock. She faces us, wearing a cranberry-red gown under a gold cloak that drapes from her right shoulder, to our left, across her back, and over the other knee. A delicate gold crown rests on her dark blond hair, and she lifts her eyes to look up at the man. Her hands are raised in front of her chest, with gold bracelets and chains hanging from her wrists. In the lower right corner of the painting, a severed foot, arm, and two heads lie near the dragon. Trees with tall, narrow, deep green canopies and one tree with spindly branches lined with delicate leaves separate the scene in front of us from the landscape beyond. In the distance, a city of white stone buildings cluster on a steep hill that rises to our left from a harbor. Tiny in scale, about a dozen people are gathered on two roofs of a multi-level structure, while others move on foot or on horseback down a road leading toward us. The powder-blue sky is scattered with puffy, white clouds. A winged angel surrounded by a butter-yellow aura hovers in the upper right corner.
Sodoma, Saint George and the Dragon, probably 1518, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.76

Saint George and the Dragon

Sodoma · probably 1518 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.76

A man, Jesus, is nailed to a cross by his hands and feet and is flanked by groups of about a dozen people to each side, all against a hilly, deep landscape in this horizontal painting. All the people have peachy, nearly golden skin, and their clothing is mostly vibrant yellow, red, blue, and purple. The horizon comes about two-thirds of the way up this composition and crosses behind Jesus’s waist, so the top half of his body and the cross are silhouetted against the ice-blue sky. Eyes closed, Jesus’s head hangs by his shoulder, to our left. Blood drips from the nails driven through his hands, from a gash over his right ribs, and more runs in a continuous stream from his overlapping feet onto the stony ground. Blood also trickles down his shoulder-length brown hair under a ring of thorns. A flat, disk-like halo hovers over his head so it angles sharply toward us, but we can see a red cross on the underside. The letters “INRI” are written in white on a red panel affixed to the top of the cross. The man is nude except for a white cloth across his hips. To our left, a man sits on a red saddle astride a dark brown horse. The balding man has a white beard and hair. He holds a long spear with its pointed end dripping blood against his body with one hand, and holds up his other hand by his chest as he looks at Jesus. In front of him and to our left, a group of six women and one man gather and kneel around a swooning woman. Closest to us, the fainting woman wears a raspberry-pink gown under a blue mantle, which covers her head and shoulders over a white veil. Her body is braced to our right by a cleanshaven man with long, curly blond hair, wearing a tan robe. A woman wearing a purple dress under an orange robe, with unbound, flax-yellow hair, supports the swooning woman’s body on the other side, to our left. Four more women look on from behind this trio. All of them have white veils over their heads, and one has a red mantle over her veil. Tears fall from everyone’s eyes in this group. Five of them, including the woman and those supporting her, have flat, disk-like halos. A short distance away to our left, three children look at the cross from a tall hill. Two sit together, and one stands and holds onto the trunk of a tree growing there. They wear tones of yellow, orange, and rose pink. Next to the cross to our right is a white horse, also with a red saddle. A man with brown hair and beard, wearing purple and yellow, looks up to Jesus. To the right, three men in armor draw straws from the fist of a fourth. Two more men stand near this group and six sit on horses behind them. The rocky ground at the base of the cross is strewn with stones. A green meadow stretches back to a body of water, which is lined with pale blue mountains in the hazy distance.
Benvenuto di Giovanni, The Crucifixion, probably 1491, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.53

The Crucifixion

Benvenuto di Giovanni · probably 1491 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.53

Two muscular men lean away, whips raised, from a third man tied to a freestanding column, in a courtyard-like space in front of a deep landscape in this vertical painting. At the center of the composition, the pale-skinned man bound to the column, Jesus, stands with his body facing us. He turns his head to our right, perhaps looking at the man to that side. Jesus is cleanshaven, and his long brown hair falls back behind his shoulders. A delicate gold ring creates a halo, with red spokes to the top and sides. Ropes wrap around his upper arms, and he is nude except for a blue cloth around his hips. The column is mottled with tan and pale pink, and is topped with a gold, leafy capital. To each side, the men with the whips have more tan skin than Jesus. They stand in the same pose as each other, with their weight mostly in their right legs, and right hands raised with the whips. But the man to our left stands with his body facing us, and the one to our right stands with his back to us, so they each lean away from Jesus. The man to our left wears a pink cloth tied around his waist but is otherwise nude. His mouth is wide open, and his free hand reaches across his chest. His royal-blue cap is decorated with lavender-purple and gold ribbons and plumes. The man to our right is nude except for a parrot-green cap wrapped with a band of orange, like a turban. The area in which they stand has a floor patterned with butter yellow and white. On the far side of the courtyard, a central arch is flanked by one to each side, which are cut off by the left and right edges of the composition. The entablature running across the top of the arches is parallel to the top edge of the painting. The landscape beyond has grassy, rolling hills dotted with trees, reaching back to hazy blue mountains along the horizon. The sky above deepens from pale blue over the mountains to azure blue across the top, seen through the arches. Several vertical cracks are visible on the surface of the panel.
Bachiacca, The Flagellation of Christ, c. 1512/1515, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.81

The Flagellation of Christ

Bachiacca · c. 1512/1515 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.81

Nearly filling this vertical painting, a young, light-skinned child stands with a delicate scepter tucked into one elbow as he holds up his other hand with the first two fingers raised. The child is lit from our left, but the overall tone of the painting is shadowy and dark. His body faces us, and he looks off to our right with round, deeply shaded eyes. He has short blond hair and a tall forehead, chubby cheeks, and his bow lips are parted. Short, gold rays emanate from the sides and top of his head within a thin gold band to create a halo. He wears a thigh-length, white tunic, and more of that fabric is wrapped around his torso. His dark, burgundy-red cape falls open across his shoulders and down to his calves, and is edged with gold around the collar and down the front. A rectangular, jewel-encrusted gold clasp holds it closed at the throat. He stands with most of his weight on his left leg, to our right, on bare feet. His right hand, to our left, is raised to his chest with the first two fingers extended up. The delicate silver scepter he holds with his other hand is topped with a cross. Swirling patches of muted brick red, harvest yellow, pine green, and off white behind him could be a tapestry. A thin, dark band creates a border around the edges of the painting.
Andrea Mantegna, The Infant Savior, c. 1460, tempera on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.67

The Infant Savior

Andrea Mantegna · c. 1460 · tempera on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.67

Marco Zoppo, Anonymous Artist, Madonna and Child, c. 1467/1468, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.51

Madonna and Child

Marco Zoppo, Anonymous Artist · c. 1467/1468 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.51

A woman holds the hands of two nude children in front of a crimson-red cloth in this vertical painting. All three have pale skin and brown hair. The woman wears a forest-green dress with voluminous sleeves and a gauzy white headdress that wraps around her hair and is fastened with a band across her forehead. She stands crouching with one foot extended slightly forward in a sandal, surrounded by broken chunks of masonry and bits of burning logs. Her body faces us but she turns her head to the right. Her mouth is wide open, and her eyes cut back to our left. The woman clutches the children’s hands in both of her own. The child to our left turns away from us and reaches one hand up to touch the back of the woman’s hand. The child on the right twists away from the woman, eyes squinted up and to the right and mouth open. Behind them, fold lines create a grid across the red cloth. Slivers of grass and blue sky line each side of the composition.
Ercole de' Roberti, The Wife of Hasdrubal and Her Children, c. 1490/1493, tempera on poplar panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1965.7.1

The Wife of Hasdrubal and Her Children

Ercole de' Roberti · c. 1490/1493 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1965.7.1

Bibliography

1932

  • Brockwell, Maurice W. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook. London, 1932: 29, no. 495.

1988

  • Sebag-Montefiore, Charles. "Three Lost Collections of London." National Art Collections Fund Magazine 38 (Christmas 1988):50+

2004

  • Danziger, Elon. "The Cook collection, its founder and its inheritors." The Burlington Magazine 146, no. 1216 (July 2004): 444-458.