Art Object Page

Overview

The obscure iconography of Dosso's canvas has caused much speculation. In the past it has been titled simply Scene from a Legend and, more often, Departure of the Argonauts. The present title refers instead to an event in Virgil's Aeneid. Designed to celebrate the origin and growth of the Roman Empire, the Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas, who after the fall of Troy and seven years wandering, founded a settlement on the Italian peninsula, establishing the Roman state. The story of Aeneas and Achates is taken from Book I of the Aeneid, where Aeneas and his faithful companion Achates, their journey just begun, take refuge on the Libyan coast after their ships are wrecked in a storm.

Two other surviving scenes from the Aeneid by Dosso have been located, one in England, the other in Canada, and along with the Washington canvas have been identified as part of a frieze of ten pictures painted by the artist for the camerino, or study of Alfonso d'Este in his castle at Ferrara. Dosso Dossi was greatly influenced by Venetian art, especially the use of color and treatment of landscape as seen in works by Titian and Giorgione. He was perhaps best known in his time for soft, feathery landscapes and scenes of everyday life that are nevertheless infused with a touch of fantasy.

Provenance

Probably commissioned c. 1514 by Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara [1476–1534], Castle, Ferrara, for his Camerino d'Alabastro;[1] by descent to his successors, Ercole II [1534–1559] and Alfonso II [1533–1597]; removed as early as 1608 from the Camerino d'Alabastro, when acquired by Cardinal Scipione Borghese [1577–1633], Rome;[2] probably Prince Giovanni Battista Borghese [1639–1717], Rome.[3] José de Madrazo y Agudo [1781–1859], Madrid, certainly by 1856, but probably acquired between 1803 and 1819.[4] (Kunsthandel A.G., Lucerne); sold 1926 to (Julius Böhler, Munich and Luzerne).[5] (Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi [1878–1955], Florence and Rome), from the early 1920s; sold 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] The earliest direct reference to the Aeneas scenes, ten oblong canvases placed in the narrow frieze between the top of a series of mythologies painted by Bellini and Titian and the cornice, occurs in a somewhat garbled description by Giorgio Vasari in his Life of Titian (1568): “Avendo l’anno 1514, il duca Alfonso da Ferrara fatto acconciare un camerino, ed in certi spartimenti fatto fare al Dosso, pittore ferrarese, istorie di Enea, di Marte e di Venere, et in una grotta Vulcano con due fabbri all fucina...” (“During the year 1514 Duke Alfonso of Ferrara caused to be decorated a small chamber, for which he commissioned the local painter Dosso to paint various compartments showing the stories of Aeneas, Mars and Venus, and in a grotto Vulcan with two smiths at the forge.”); Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568, edited by Rosanna Bettarini and Paola Barocchi, 8 vols., Florence, 1966-1987: 6(1987):158. The ten scenes were, according to Peter Humfrey, almost certainly painted in 1520-1521 (Peter Humfrey, “More on Dosso’s Aeneas Frieze,” Artibus et Historiae 81 [2020]: 137-156). Humfrey’s article provides much of the detail of this provenance; see also the following notes.

[2] Writing to the Cardinal in March 1608 immediately before they were removed, the papal legate to Ferrara, Innocenzo Massimo, described the scenes as follows: “Et questi sono dieci pezzi che servono per fregio ad un Camerino; sono lunghi ogni pezzo una Canna et alto tre palmi rappresentano diverse azioni d’Enea, scritte da Virgilio sono bellissimi.” (“These consist of ten pieces forming the frieze of a small chamber; each is one canna wide by three palmi high; they represent different deeds by Aeneas, as recounted by Virgil; and they are very beautiful”.) See Amalia Mezzetti, “Le ‘Storie di Enea’ del Dosso nel ‘camerino d’alabastro’di Alfonso I d’Este,” Paragone nos. 189–190 (1965): 82. One canna architettonica romana, comprising 10 palmi architettonici, was equivalent to 2.234 m; one canna mercantile romana, comprising 8 palmi mercantile, was equivalent to 1,992 m. Whichever method of measurement was adopted here, it is clear that the dimensions given by Massimo are only very approximate.

[3] As pointed out by Charles Hope, “The ‘Camerini d’Alabastro’ of Alfonso d’Este,” The Burlington Magazine 113 (1971): 643, the NGA painting may almost certainly be identified with an item recorded in the only known Borghese inventory, dated 1693, to include the ten paintings of the series. The NGA painting is described as “Un quadro di 4 palmi longo alto 2 pmi e mezzo in circa del no.2 con figure Bandiere Vascelli et altro Cornice dorata del Dosi” (“a picture by Dosso about 4 palms wide by 2 1/2 high, belonging to no. 2, with figures, banners, ships and other things, in a gilded frame”). See P. Della Pergola, “L’inventario Borghese del 1693,” Arte Antica e Moderna, no. 26 (1964): 218-230, no. 28 (1964): 451-467, no. 30 (1965): 202-217; citation in Humfrey 2020, 155 n. 8. The NGA painting is listed in issue no. 28 (1964): 461, no. 390.

[4] Renato Berzaghi, “Una segnalazione per le ‘Storie di Enea’ di Dosso Dossi,” Prospettiva, nos. 139/140 (2010): 135-136; Vincenzo Farinella, Alfonso I d’Este. Le immagini e il potere, Milan, 2014: 493-542. Until Berzaghi’s partial publication of an 1856 catalogue of De Madrazo y Agudo’s collection, the 19th century whereabouts of the ten canvases had been unknown. De Madrazo y Agudo, a Spanish neoclassical painter, spent the years from 1803 to 1819 in Rome, and, according to Humfrey (Humfrey 2020, 143), “almost certainly acquired his ten paintings by Dosso during this period of residence – probably from an intermediate dealer, but anyway soon after they had left the Borghese collection.” The 1856 catalogue confirms their presence in the Madrazo y Agudo collection at that date, as well as the earlier Borghese provenance, and provides both exact dimensions and detailed descriptions of the subjects. The 1693 inventory (see note 3) had given only vague descriptions of their dimensions and subjects; the frieze canvases are no longer mentioned in a Borghese inventory of c. 1790 (Humfrey 2020, 155 n. 8).

[5] Records of Julius Böhler, Munich, 1904-1940, Accession Number 2611-491, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Inventory card no. 55-26 (copy in NGA curatorial files).

[6] According to Kress records in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Borghese Collection
Böhler, Julius
Böhler, Julius
Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Este, Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso I d'
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.

Exhibition History

1933: Pitture Ferrarese del Rinascimento, Ferrara, 1933, no. 198, repro.

1939: Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 83, as Departure of the Argonauts, repro.

1996: Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 58-59, color repro.

1998: Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, Exhibit Halls, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1998-1999, no. 19, repro.

Bibliography

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 58, no. 361, as Scene from a Legend.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro., as Scene from a Legend.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 169, repro., as Scene from a Legend.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 43, as Scene from a Legend.

1966: Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568. Edited by Rosanna Bettarini and Paola Barocchi. 8 vols. Florence, 1966-1987: 6(1987):158.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 36, repro., as Scene from a Legend.

1968: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 73-74, fig. 183.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 110, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:164-166; 2:pl. 115.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 133, repro.

1990: Bull, David. "Introduction." Studies in the History of Art 40 (1990): 11, 15, repro. no. 8.

1992: National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 33, repro.

2013: "Vasari and the National Gallery of Art." National Gallery of Art Bulletin 48 (Spring 2013): 20, repro.

2020: Humfrey, Peter. "More on Dosso's Aeneas Frieze." Artibus et historiae no. 81 (2020): 137-156, 139 fig. 3, as The Trojans Repairing their Ships at Acesta, 143 fig. 9, as left half of "The Trojans at Acesta.

National Gallery of Art

Aeneas and Achates on the Libyan Coast, c. 1520

Overview

Provenance

Associated Names

Exhibition History

Bibliography

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