Tobias and the Angel
c. 1475/1480
Painter, Florentine, 1457 - 1504
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 7
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil and tempera on poplar panel
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
painted surface: 32.7 x 23.5 cm (12 7/8 x 9 1/4 in.)
overall: 34.45 x 25.4 cm (13 9/16 x 10 in.)
framed: 47.6 x 38.1 x 5.7 cm (18 3/4 x 15 x 2 1/4 in.) -
Accession
1939.1.229
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Alexander Barker [c. 1797-1873], London, by 1868;[1] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 19-21 June 1879, 3rd day, no. 498, as by A. Pollaiuolo); (Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London); presumably Colonel William Cornwallis-West; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 23 April 1887, no. 78, as by Antonio Pollaiuolo);[2] purchased by (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London and New York) for Robert Henry [1850-1929] and Evelyn Holford [1856-1943] Benson, London and Buckhurst Park, Sussex; sold 1927 with the Benson collection to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[3] sold May 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] The painting is listed as the property of Alexander Barker in the catalogue of the National Exhibition in Leeds, held in 1868. Since, on the other hand, it is not mentioned by Gustav Waagen in his descriptions of the Barker collection (Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols, London, 1854: 2:125; Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1857: 71-79), it may have been acquired only after 1857. On Alexander Barker, see John Fleming, "Art Dealing in the Risorgimento. Part 2," The Burlington Magazine 121, no. 917 (August 1979): 505-506.
[2] Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:259 n. 4. The Getty Provenance Index provides the information that the seller, unidentified in the sale catalogue, was presumably Cornwallis-West. Robert Henry Benson's notes on the painting's history (transcript provided in 1976 by his grandson, Peter Wake, and in NGA curatorial files) read: "Bought at Christie's for about 275 Pounds -in the same sale was a Signorelli 'Christ in the House of Simon' (?). I wanted both, but Henry Doyle, then director of the Irish National Gallery came up and proposed that we should not oppose each other and if I would give up bidding for the Signorelli, he would not oppose me for the Filippino - I was miserable at losing the Signorelli until Fairfax Murray got me the 'Madonna of the Casa Tommassi' on a gold ground from Cortona."
[3] The sale of this well-known collection caused an enormous stir; see for example Tancred Borenius, "The Benson Collection," Apollo 6 (1927): 65-70; Frank E. Washburn Freund, "Die Sammlung Benson," Der Cicerone 19 (1927): 495-502.
[4] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of thirteen paintings and one sculpture, including NGA 1939.1.229, is dated 18 May 1936; the provenance is given as "Benson Coll'n" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2369.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1868
National Exhibition of Works of Art, Leeds, 1868, no. 25, as by Antonio Pollaiuolo.
1894
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1894, no. 156.
1910
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1910, no. 19.
1919
Exhibition of Florentine Painting before 1500, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1919, no. 25 (no. 25 and pl. XXV in illustrated catalogue published 1920).
1927
Loan Exhibition of the Benson Collection of Old Italian Masters, City of Manchester Art Gallery, 1927, no. 110.
1932
Exhibition of Italian Renaissance Art, Wadsworth Atheneum and Morgan Memorial, Hartford, 1932, no. 3.
1979
Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 98.
2013
Florenz!, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, 2013-2014, no. 95, repro.
Bibliography
1894
Phillips, Claude. “Expositions d’hiver à la Royal Academy et à la New Gallery de Londres.” 1894: 348.
1901
Berenson, Bernard. The Study and Criticism of Italian Art. London, 1901: 57 n. 1, as by Amico di Sandro.
1907
Cust, Lionel. “La Collection de M. R. H. Benson (Londres).” Les Artes 70 (1907): 26.
Gronau, Georg. “Lippi, Filippino.” In Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker, and Hans Vollmer, eds._ Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zum Gegenwart_. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 23(1929): 269.
1909
Berenson, Bernard. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, 3rd ed. London, 1909: 100, as by Amico di Sandro.
1910
Beckerath, Adolf von. “Die Winter-Ausstellungen alter Bilder in London.” Rerpertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 33 (1910): 282, as by Amico di Sandro.
1914
Borenius, Tancred. Catalogue of Italian Pictures at 16 South Street, Park Lane, London and Buckhurst in Sussex Collected by Robert and Evelyn Benson. London, 1914: no. 32.
1919
Phillips, Claude. “Florentine Art before 1500.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 34 (1919): 216.
1921
Graves, Algernon. Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century. 3 vols. London, 1918-1923: 2(1921):236.
1923
Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 12(1931):318.
1933
Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 2:pl. 261.
1935
Scharf, Alfred. Filippino Lippi. Vienna, 1935: 15, 106.
1938
Neilson, Katharine B. Filippino Lippi, a Critical Study. New York, 1938: 23, 35.
Berenson, Bernard. The Drawings of the Florentine Painters. 3 vols. Chicago, 1938: 2:240, 381. 3:fig. 240, as by Amico di Sandro.
1941
"World Masterpieces Lend Supreme Distinction to National Gallery of Art." The Washington Star (16 March 1941): F6.
Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 107, repro.
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 106, no. 340.
Richter, George Martin. "The New National Gallery in Washington." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 78 (June 1941): 177.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro. 129.
1944
Lugt, Fritz. “Man and Angel. II.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 25, no. 1 (1944): 325.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 57, repro.
1950
Scharf, Alfred. Filippino Lippi, 2nd ed. Vienna, 1950: 11, 53.
1951
Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 44-47, repro.
1952
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 30, color repro.
1957
Berti, Luciano, and Umberto Baldini. Filippino Lippi. Florence, 1957: 20, 72.
1958
Gamba, Fiammetta. Filippino Lippi nella storia della critica. Florence, 1958: 104 n. 45, pl. 1.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 71, repro.
1962
Faison, Lane. “A Polychromed Lindenwood Guardian Angel.” Wadsworth Athenaeum Bulletin 5, no. 11 (1962): 12.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 300, repro.
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:111.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 75.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:52, color repro.
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 135, fig. 369.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 66, repro.
1969
Boskovits, Miklós. Toskanische Frührenaissance Tafelbilder. Budapest, 1969: under cat. 45.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 106, 645.
1973
Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 79.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 194, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:258-259; 2:pl. 175.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 97, no. 57, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 228, repro.
1987
Horne, Herbert. H. Alessandro Filipepi commonly called Sandro Botticelli, Painter of Florence. Appendix III: Catalogue of the works of Sandro Botticelli, and of his disciples and imitators, together with notices of those erroneously attributed to him in the public and private collections of Europe and America. Ed. Caterina Caneva. Florence, 1987: 26, as by Amico di Sandro.
1991
Berti, Luciano, and Umberto Baldini. Filippino Lippi, 2nd ed. Florence, 1991: 43, 53, 158-159, repro.
Morandotti, Alessandro. "La fortuna collezionistica della pittura gotica e rinascimentale fra Ottocento e Novecento." In Mauro Natale, ed. Pittura italiana dal '300 al '500. Milan, 1991: 43.
1992
Hall, Nicholas H. J., ed. Colnaghi in America: A Survey to Commemorate the First Decade of Colnaghi. New York, London, and Paris, 1992: 44.
1995
Zambrano, Patrizia. “L’eredità di Filippo: qualche indicazione sui primi passi di Filippino Lippi nella bottega paterna.” In Maria Pia Mannini, ed. La Natività di Filippo Lippi: restauro saggi ricerche. Pisa and Prato, 1995: 44, fig. 17.
1996
Bradshaw, Marilyn. “Lippi, Filippino.” In Jane Turner, ed. The Dictionary of Art. London, 1996: 19:446.
1997
Nelson, Jonathan. “An Introduction to the Life and Styles of Filippino Lippi.” In George R. Goldner and Carmen Bambach, eds. The Drawings of Filippino Lippi and his Circle. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997: 11.
Montefiore, Charles Sebag. “R. H. Benson as collector.” In Jehanne Wake. Kleinwort, Benson. A History of Two Families in Banking. Oxford, 1997: 484-485.
1998
Gibson, Sarah S. and Alicia Craig Faxon. "Journey/Flight." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art, edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 1:445.
1999
Rubin, Patricia Lee, and Alison Wright with contributions by Nicholas Penny. Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s. Exh. cat. National Gallery, London, 1999: 168.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 383-387, color repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 19, no. 13, color repros.
Zambrano, Patrizia, and Jonathan Katz Nelson. Filippino Lippi. Milan, 2004: 20, 91, 164-166, 169, 318-319, 320, 325, cat. 12, figs. 57, 157.
Arasse, Daniel, et al, eds. Botticelli and Filippino: Passion and Grace in Fifteenth-Century Florentine Painting. Exh. cat. Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 2004: 172, 176.
2009
Philpot, Elizabeth. "Old Testament Apocryphal Images in European Art." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Gothenburg, 2009: 148-149, color pl. 4.
2017
Serres, Karen. "Duveen's Italian framemaker, Ferruccio Vannoni." The Burlington Magazine 159, no. 1370 (May 2017): 373 n. 40.
2020
O’Malley, Michelle. “Filippino in Botticelli’s Workshop.” In Paula Nuttall, Geoffrey Nuttall, and Michael W. Kwakkelstein eds. Filippino Lippi: Beauty, Invention and Intelligence. Leiden, 2020: 57.
2022
Nelson, Jonathan K. Filippino Lippi: An Abundance of Invention. London, 2022: 44-45.
Wikidata ID
Q7811679