Saint Jerome Reading
c. 1476
Artist, Venetian, 1442/1453 - 1503/1505
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 12
Artwork overview
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Medium
tempera on panel
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 31.4 x 25.1 cm (12 3/8 x 9 7/8 in.)
framed: 47.2 x 41.6 x 5.1 cm (18 9/16 x 16 3/8 x 2 in.) -
Accession
1939.1.311
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Mameli, Rome.[1] William Jones, Clytha Park, Gwent, Wales; (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 8 May 1852, no. 65).[2] (Thomas [Tomás] Harris, London), by 1930;[3] purchased by Godfrey Locker-Lampson [1875-1946], Barlborough Hall, Derbyshire, and London, by 1937;[4] purchased by (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[5] sold September 1938 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century, London, 1968: 48-49, and Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:535-536, lists this owner, without citing a source. There is no further information in NGA curatorial files.
[2] Catalogue of the Important Collection of Capital Pictures, by Italian, Flemish, and English Masters, Acquired Chiefly during a Long Residence in Italy, by William Jones, Esq., of Clytha. No. 65 is described as "Vivarini: St. Paul the Hermit, seated, with a book in his hand, near a rocky cave, with a lake in the background." On Jones and his collection, see Francis Russell, "Documents for the History of Collecting: 17," Burlington Magazine 136 (1994): 90.
[3] Tancred Borenius, "An Unpublished Work by Alvise Vivarini," Der Cicerone 22 (1930): 500, repro. 501.
[4] Robert Langton Douglas, A Few Italian Pictures Collected by Godfrey Locker-Lampson, London, n.d.: 44, repro. 45. Although no date is printed, the catalogue is reliably dated to 1937 on the following evidence, kindly provided by Charles Sebag-Montefiore in a letter of 2 September 2001 (in NGA curatorial files): a manuscript note by Ellis Waterhouse in his own copy of the catalogue (Ellis K. Waterhouse notebooks and research files, 1801-1987, bulk 1924-1979; Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles), and a reference by Denys Sutton in "Robert Langton Douglas. Connoisseur of Art and Life (Part IV)," Apollo CX, no. 209, new series (July 1979): 30. Douglas probably handled Locker-Lampson pictures after Locker-Lampson's death in 1946.
[5] According to Charles Sebag-Montefiore's A Bibliography of the British as Collectors (forthcoming; copy of the entry for Godfrey Locker-Lampson in NGA curatorial files, kindly provided by the author), the 1937 catalogue was likely "prepared as a record of the collection before its dispersal." Contini Bonacossi purchased four paintings from the collection, in either 1937 or 1938.
[6] The bill of sale to the Kress Foundation, for a total of twenty-eight paintings including the Vivarini, is dated 16 September 1938 (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1854.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1940
Four Centuries of Venetian Painting, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1940, no. 70, repro., as Saint Jerome.
Bibliography
1930
Borenius, Tancred. “An Unpublished Work by Alvise Vivarini.” Der Cicerone 22 (1930): 500, 501, repro.
1937
Douglas, Robert Langton. A Few Italian Pictures Collected by Godfrey Locker-Lampson. London [1937]: 44, 45, repro.
1940
Suida, Wilhelm. "Die Sammlung Kress: New York." Pantheon 26 (1940): 274-276.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 211, no. 438.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 248, repro. 206.
1946
Longhi, Roberto. Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana. Florence, 1946: 14, 59, pl. 71.
1957
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:196; 2: pl. 332.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 146, repro.
1961
Pallucchini, Rodolfo. I Vivarini (Antonio, Bartolomeo, Alvise). Venice, 1961: 55, 58, 72, 131, pl. 223.
1963
Marini, Remigio. “I Vivarini e il vivarinismo.” Emporium 138 (November 1963): 198, 203, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 136.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 124, repro.
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 48-49, fig. 110.
1969
Longhi, Roberto. “Ritorni e progressi su Alvise.” Paragone 20, no. 229 (1969): 39.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 210, 409.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 366, repro.
Zeri, Federico. “Primizie di Alvise Vivarini.” Antichità Viva 14 (1975): 171-173, pl. 150.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:535-536; 2:pl. 372.
Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part IV." Apollo 109 (July 1979): 7-8 [199-200], 12 [204] fig. 21.
1980
Friedmann, Herbert. A Bestiary for Saint Jerome: Animal Symbolism in European Religious Art. Washington, DC, 1980: 77, fig. 61.
Ragghianti, Carlo L. “Galleria di Washington.” Critica d’Arte 45, nos. 154-156 (1980): 220.
1982
Steer, John. Alvise Vivarini: His Art and Influence. Cambridge, 1982: 11, 14-15, 16, 167, 179, 180, 194, cat. 40, pl. 6.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 426, repro.
1995
Bettagno, Alessandro, and Giorgio Fossaluzza. “Interpretazioni del paesaggio nella pittura veneta.” In Alessandro Bettagno, ed. Natura e arte nel paesaggio veneto. Dalle interpretazioni pittoriche alle immagine fotografiche. Turin, 1995: 140, fig. 24.
1997
Zeri, Federico, and Andrea G. De Marchi. La Spezia, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia. Dipinti. La Spezia, 1997: 352.
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: 675-679, color repro.
2023
Müller, Rebecca. Die Vivarini: Bildproduktion in Venedig 1440 bis 1505. Regensburg, 2023: 149, 268 n. 256, 343 n. 168, 401 n. 250, 438, fig. 85.
Inscriptions
lower right on a cartello: LVDVVICVS VIVA / RINVS . PINXIT
Wikidata ID
Q20174251