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Home » Collection » The Worship of the Golden Calf
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography
Provenance

Hastings (or Hasting) collection, England.[1] possibly (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York).[2] (Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, Florence); sold 26 June 1935 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] The bill of sale to the Kress Foundation (see note 3) says the painting was "formerly in the Hasting's[sic] Collection, England." It has not yet been determined which collection this was; see notes in NGA curatorial files.

The Getty Provenance Index Database of the contents of sale catalogues lists a Christie's sale of 24-27 June 1833, held in Bath, England, of the large collection of "John Pura, Esq., deceased" (sale catalogue Br-13849). Lot number 130 of this sale, sold on the second day of the sale to "Rickets," was described as a painting by Tintoretto, "The Worshipping the Molten Calf, -- a grand composition of many figures." As there are no dimensions, further description, or illustration in the catalogue, it is not possible to determine if this was the NGA painting.

[2] See the letter of 27 October 1948, in NGA curatorial files, from Stephen Pichetto, Kress Foundation conservator, to John Walker, then NGA curator, in which Walker wrote that Koetser said he had once owned the painting. Koetser told Walker the painting had been purchased "at Christie's or at Sutherland's in three parts and that there was a fourth part that they did not succeed in acquiring." Walker suggested the fourth part "must have been the trees at the top."

[3] The bill of sale was for seven paintings and a number of decorative art objects (copy in NGA curatorial files).

Exhibition History
1939
Dutch and Italian Masterpieces from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Dayton Art Institute, 1939-1940, no catalogue.
1939
Masterpieces of Five Centuries, Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939, no. 55.
1940
Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 19, repro.
Bibliography
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 194-195, no. 291.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 245, repro. 195.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 128, repro.
1948
Tietze, Hans. Tintoretto: The Paintings and Drawings. New York, 1948: 381.
1950
Pallucchini, Rodolfo. La giovinezza del Tintoretto. Milan, 1950: 153.
1957
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:183.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 201, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 128.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 115, repro.
1970
De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 101, no. 139.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 201.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 54-55, fig. 98.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 340, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:471-472, 2:pl. 336, 336A,B.
1982
Pallucchini, Rodolfo, and Paola Rossi. Tintoretto: le opere sacre e profane. 2 vols. Venice, 1982: 1:171, no. 180; 2:fig. 236.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 230, no. 290, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 391, repro.
1999
Meijer, Bert W. “Flemish and Dutch Artists in Venetian Workshops: the Case of Jacopo Tintoretto.” In Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Dürer, Bellini and Titian. Edited by Bernard Aikema and Beverly Louise Brown. Exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, Venice. Milan, 1999: 143, repro.
2009
Echols, Robert, and Frederick Ilchman. “Toward a New Tintoretto Catalogue, with a Checklist of Revised Attributions and a New Chronology.” In Jacopo Tintoretto: Actas del congreso internacional/Proceedings of the International Symposium, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, February 26-27, 2007. Madrid, 2009: 144, no. S52.