Venus

c. 1530

Bernardino Luini

Artist, Milanese, c. 1480 - 1532

A nearly nude woman with pale, pink skin reclines along golden-yellow grass with a grove of trees behind her to our right and a landscape with rocky cliffs along a rippling shoreline to our left in this horizontal painting. Her legs extend to our left, and her body is tipped to face us, her hips stacked. Her left elbow, to our right, is propped on a swell in the ground to lift her torso. She looks off to our left with hazel-brown eyes under faint, curving brows. Her skin is smooth and shadows blur the corners of her eyes and mouth. She has a straight, long nose, and her rose-pink lips are closed. Her copper-brown hair is pulled back and up, and wraps around her head. A long, teardrop-shaped pearl hangs from the ear we can see. With both hands, she holds the ends of a translucent cloth that wraps around her hips, legs, and across her back, leaving her round, high breasts exposed. Ruby-red and white fabric lies in a heap near her feet, and a gold and pearl piece of jewelry, perhaps a necklace, drapes over the swell in the ground near her propped elbow. Small, finely detailed mauve-pink, white, or butter-yellow flowers grow in the grass around her. The land curves back along the right edge of the painting, to a grove of trees with sage and deep green leaves. An aquamarine-blue river separates her and the trees from the rocky outcroppings and towns beyond. An arched bridge spans the river and leads to a path that winds along the undulating shoreline. Buildings cluster on a rocky cliff near the bridge and a second grouping indicates another town farther along the shore. Topaz-blue clouds billow up over indigo-blue mountains in the deep distance, against a sky painted in the same jeweled blue tones.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 18

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 106.7 x 135.9 cm (42 x 53 1/2 in.)
    framed: 138.4 x 167.2 x 9.2 cm (54 1/2 x 65 13/16 x 3 5/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.120

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably Lord Kingsdale, England.[1] Probably Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London;[2] probably (sale, Robinson, Fisher and Harding, London, 19 March 1925, no. 5). Ing. Gianfranceschi, Bergamo; sold to Anna Barbato, Naples; (Gino Longhi, Bergamo and Naples), by 1926.[3] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold June 1933 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] The bill of sale for several paintings being sold by Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi to the Kress Foundation, including this one, describes the painting as "formerly in the Collection of Lord Kingsdale, Eng." (copy in NGA curatorial files). There is no name spelled "Kingsdale" in Burke's Peerage. The closest possibility is "Kingsale," and the two persons with the title "Lord Kingsale" that might be relevant were Michael William de Courcy, 25th lord Kingsale (1822-1895), and his son, Michael Constantine de Courcy, 26th lord Kingsale (1855-1931).
[2] Robinson's name appears in 1925 sale catalogue, which includes neither dimensions or reproduction, so it is not certain the painting described is the NGA one.
[3] K.R.S., "A Fine Luini Found at Bergamo," The Art News (6 November 1926): 1. The article states that Barbato and Longhi "are now together its [the painting's] actual proprietors."
[4] See note 1; the bill of sale is dated 23 June 1933. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2417.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1939

  • Classics of the Nude, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1939, no. 6.

1940

  • Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 8, repro.

2014

  • Bernardino Luini e i suoi figli [Bernardino Luini and His Sons], Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2014, no. 62, repro.

Bibliography

1926

  • S., K.R. "A Fine Luini is Found at Bergamo." The Art News 25, no. 5 (6 November 1926): 1.

1927

  • Venturi, Adolfo. Studi dal vero: Attraverso le raccolta artistiche di Europea. Milan, 1927: 364-365, fig. 246.

1929

  • Suida, Wilhelm. Leonardo und sein Kreis. Munich, 1929: 236, fig. 327.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 117, no. 231.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 244, repro. 139.

1953

  • Ottino della Chiesa, Angela. Bernardino Luini. Milan and Florence, 1953: pl. 67.

1956

  • Ottino della Chiesa, Angela. Bernardino Luini. Novara, 1956: 44-45, 142, no. 253, fig. 155.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 185, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 79.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 69, repro.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 143-144, fig. 348-349.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:235.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 202, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:283-285; 2:pl. 194.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 227, no. 283, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 236, repro.

1991

  • Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991: no. 159, 260-261, color repro. 261 (the painting was not in the exhibition).

2019

  • Quattrini, Cristina. Bernardino Luini: Catalogo generale delle opere. Turin, 2019: 306-307, cat. 167, as Workshop or Follower of Bernardino Luini.

Wikidata ID

Q20176035

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