Christ in Limbo

probably 1491

Benvenuto di Giovanni

Artist, Sienese, 1436 - before 1517

A haloed man with his back to us approaches a crowd gathered in a crate-like box unexpectedly set into a rocky landscape in this square painting. The central man, Jesus, is covered with a white cloth across one shoulder and both hips, and he carries a white banner marked with a red cross. He is barefoot as he steps on the opening to the box, which is hinged along the bottom edge. The door has crushed a wild-haired demon with red-colored skin against the pebble-strewn ground below. More than two dozen men and women of all ages are crowded into the box, their round faces tipped back and looking toward Jesus. All the people have pale skin. Jesus reaches out his left hand to hold the wrist of a man with a long white beard and hair, who kneels to the left. This kneeling man wears a dark, fur-like garment, and a hoe is hooked across his bent knee. Jesus holds the hand of a second man, who also kneels, to our right. This man wears a canary-yellow robe edged in blue, and he grips Jesus’s wrist with his second hand. A man wearing a purple toga over another fur-like garment stands behind. The box-like structure is set within a massive, striated boulder. More rocky cliffs rise to each side of the central form, and the sky above is sapphire blue.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 8

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    painted surface: 42.1 × 46.6 cm (16 9/16 × 18 3/8 in.)
    overall size: 43 × 48.7 cm (16 15/16 × 19 3/16 in.)
    framed (with four other paintings): 59.69 × 283.21 × 5.4 cm (23 1/2 × 111 1/2 × 2 1/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.54

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Luigi de Angelis [1758-1832, custodian of the Siena Library from 1812], Siena, by 1824.[1] Acquired 1875 through Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London, by Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey;[2] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold April 1946 to (Francis A. Drey, London).[3] (Wildenstein & Co., New York); purchased June 1949 by the Samuel H. Kress Collection, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] According to a handwritten note of that date by the abbot De Angelis in the Archives of the Uffizi (De Angelis, folio 337r.). The note first describes in detail the altarpiece Ascension of Christ (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena, no. 434) that was originally in the atrium of the sacristy of the monastery of Sant'Eugenio near Siena, and from there moved to Siena to the city's old university called the Sapienza. De Angelis continues: "In my modest possession are four little pictures two thirds of a braccio high and one and one-sixth braccio wide, with lovely little figures, which could easily be mistaken for the work of Mantegna. One very crowded with figures represents the capture in the garden, one the crucifixion, the third the resurrection and the fourth, painted with great skill, is the descent into Limbo. All four are by Benvenuto." He does not state it explicitly, but it is very probable that De Angelis knew the provenance of these paintings and the fact that they originally belonged with the Ascension of Christ by Benvenuto, which at least since 1768 was missing its predella (see Guglielmo Della Valle (Lettere sanesi...sopra le belle arti, vol. 3, Rome, 1786: 44). Probably at the time the altarpiece was moved from the church the predella, as was customary, was divided into "little pictures" distributed among the monks' cells. The NGA paintings 1952.5.52-.55 would then be purchased from the monastery, probably already framed together (as suggested by the wrong order in which they are described by De Angelis), in the same form they would have when illustrated in the catalogue of the Cook collection (see note 2).
Luigi De Angelis (on whom see Ubaldo Cagliaritano, Mamma Siena, Siena, 1971: 523) was entrusted with gathering and reordering the works of art belonging to the suppressed religious orders and thus with creating what was to become the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. It is not known what happened to his own collection after his death.
[2] See Tancred Borenius, A Catalogue of the Paintings in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt., 3 vols., London, 1913: 1: no. 6.
[3] See copy of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England. There is no record of who purchased NGA 1952.5.52-.55 from Drey. See Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 67 n. 7, in which she states: "Dr. Paul Drey wrote to the National Gallery in a letter of Sept. 20, 1946: 'All four panels were sold by Sir Francis [Ferdinand Maurice] Cook [4th bt.]; since then they have been sold again and, to my regret, the present owner does not want to have his name known.'" The Wildenstein invoice (see note 4) lists only all four Cook family owners.
[4] The four paintings were with Wildenstein & Co. by at least February 1949, when John Walker saw them (see his 28 February 1949 letter to George Wildenstein, copy in NGA curatorial files). The Wildenstein invoice to the Kress Foundation for 16 items, including the predella paintings, is dated 23 June 1949 (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/519).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1904

  • Exhibition of Pictures of the School of Siena, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1904, no. 54.

1988

  • Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988-1989, no. 62d, repro., as The Descent into Limbo (cat. by Keith Christiansen, Laurence B. Kanter, and Carl Brandon Strehlke).

Bibliography

1824

  • De Angelis, Luigi. “Notizie delle opere di Benvenuto di Giovanni, pittore senese del secolo XV.” In “Miscellanee manoscritte.” Archives of the Gallerie Fiorentine at the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, ms. 60: 2(1824): no. 18, fol. 337r.

1897

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance. New York, 1897: 134.

1903

  • Cook, Francis. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond. London, 1903: 9, no. 55.

  • Destrée, Jules. Notes sur les primitifs italiens: Sur quelques peintures de Sienne. Brussels and Florence, 1903: 79.

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in Italy. 6 vols. Ed. Robert Langton Douglas (vols. 1-4) and Tancred Borenius (vols. 5-6). London, 1903-1914: 5(1915):164 n. 1.

1904

  • Frizzoni, Gustavo. "L’esposizione d’arte senese al Burlington Fine Arts Club." L’Arte 7 (1904): 269.

  • Fry, Roger. "La mostra d’arte senese al Burlington Club di Londra." Rassegna d’Arte 4 (1904) 118.

  • Pératé, André. “Les Expositions d’art siennois à Sienne et à Londres.” Les Arts 34 (October 1904): 12.

  • Perkins, Frederick Mason. “The Sienese Exhibition of Ancient Art.” The Burlington Magazine 5 (1904): 583.

1908

  • Jacobsen, Emil. Das Quattrocento in Siena. Strasbourg, 1908: 72.

  • Crowe, Joseph Archer, and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle. A New History of Painting in Italy from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. 3 vols. Ed. Edward Hutton. London and New York, 1908-1909: 3(1909):118 n. 3.

1909

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance. 2nd ed. New York, 1909: 148.

1913

  • Borenius, Tancred. A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt. Italian Schools. Vol. I, Pt. 2. Edited by Herbert Cook. London, 1913: 7-8, no. 6, repro.

1923

  • Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 16(1937):416-417.

1925

  • Hutton, Edward. The Sienese School in the National Gallery. London, 1925: 85.

1930

  • Berenson, Bernard. “Quadri senza casa: Il Quattrocento senese – parte 1.” Dedalo 11, no. 10 (March 1930): 643.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932: 77.

  • Brockwell, Maurice W. Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook. London, 1932:

1936

  • Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936: 66.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 62, no. 20, repro.

1954

  • Bologna, Ferdinando. "Miniature di Benvenuto di Giovanni." Paragone 5, no. 51 (1954): 17, 19 n. 3.

  • Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New York, 1954: 77.

1956

  • Laclotte, Michel. De Giotto à Bellini: les primitifs italiens dans les musées de France. Exh. cat. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1956: 35.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 84, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 14.

1966

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 158-159, fig. 431.

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Darrell Davisson. Benvenuto di Giovanni, Girolamo di Benvenuto, their altarpieces in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Malibu, CA, 1966: 29, figs. 19-23.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 7, repro.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:42.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 26, 646-647.

1974

  • Bandera, Maria Cristina. “Qualche osservazione su Benvenuto di Giovanni.” Antichità Viva 13, no. 1 (1974): 13-14, 17 nn. 40, 41.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 28, repro.

1977

  • Bandera, Maria Cristina. “Variazioni ai cataloghi berensoniani di Benvenuto di Giovanni.” In Maria Grazia Ciardi Duprè Dal Poggetto and Paolo Dal Poggetto, eds. Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Ugo Procacci. 2 vols. Milan, 1977: 1:314.

1978

  • Rotili, Mario. La miniature nella Badia di Cava. 2. La raccolta di miniature italiane e straniere. Cava dei Tirreni and Naples, 1978: 95, 169, fig. 39.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:66-67; 2:pl. 44.

  • Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part I." Apollo 109 (April 1979): 304 [58], 307 [61] fig. 24.

1981

  • Worthen, Thomas Fletcher. "The Harrowing of Hell in the Art of the Italian Renaissance." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa, Ames, 1981: 160, 500, fig. 87.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 47, repro.

  • Riedl, Peter Anselm, and Max Seidel, eds. Die Kirchen von Siena. 3 vols. Munich, 1985-2006: 2(1992):644.

1986

  • Angelini, Alessandro. “Benvenuto di Giovanni.” In Federico Zeri, ed. La pittura in Italia. Il Quattrocento. 2 vols. Milan, 1986: 2:582.

1987

  • Laclotte, Michel, and Elisabeth Mognetti. Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais: peinture italienne. 3rd ed. Paris, 1987: nos. 28, 29.

1989

  • Hood, William. "Sienese Quattrocento Painting. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York." The Burlington Magazine 131 (1989): 243.

1990

  • Carli, Enzo. "Risurrezioni a Siena." Antichità Viva 29, no. 5 (1990): 12-13, fig. 16.

1992

  • Ladis, Andrew. "Benvenuto di Giovanni at Sixteen." Rivista d'Arte 44 (1992): 307-308.

1993

  • Alessi, Cecilia. “Benvenuto di Giovanni.” In Luciano Bellosi, ed. Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena 1450-1500. Exh. cat. Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, Siena, 1993: 519.

  • Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 549.

1994

  • Kanter, Laurence. Italian Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. I. 13th-15th Century. Boston, 1994: 201, 203 n. 1.

1995

  • _Finarte. Dipinti Antichi. Asta 534. Sale cat. Finarte, Milan, 4 April 1995: 48.

1999

  • Bandera, Maria Cristina. Benvenuto di Giovanni. Milan, 1999: 104, 148, 154, 158-163, 238-239, 240, 241, cat. 71.

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: 118, 120-124, color repro.

  • Alessi, Cecilia. La Confraternita ritrovata: Benvenuto di Giovanni e Girolamo di Benvenuto nello Spedale Vecchio di Siena. Asciano (Siena), 2003: 81, 104.

2004

  • Hiller von Gaertringen, Rudolf. Italienische Gemälde im Städel 1300-1550: Toskana und Umbrien. Kataloge der Gemälde im Städelschen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main. Mainz, 2004: 400.

2015

  • Sallay, Dóra. Corpus of Sienese Paintings in Hungary 1420-1510. Florence, 2015: 194.

Wikidata ID

Q20174589

You may be interested in

Loading Results