The Wife of Hasdrubal and Her Children

c. 1490/1493

Ercole de' Roberti

Artist, Ferrarese, c. 1455/1456 - 1496

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 13

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on poplar panel

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 47.3 x 30.6 cm (18 5/8 x 12 1/16 in.)
    framed: 67 x 50.2 x 4.4 cm (26 3/8 x 19 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1965.7.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably commissioned by Eleonora of Aragon, duchess of Ferrara [1450-1493]. Count Étienne Méjan [secretary to Eugène Beauharnais], Milan, by 1812.[1] Count d'Arache [possibly Count Bertolazone d'Arache], Turin, by 1849;[2] bequest 1857 to Count Castellani, Turin.[3] Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London, by 1861; probably sold to Robert Napier, West Shandon, Strathclyde, Scotland, by 1865;[4] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 April 1877, no. 422, as The Nurse Saving the Children of Medea by Andrea Mantegna); repurchased by Sir John Charles Robinson, London; purchased 1878 by Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey;[5] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Herbert 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 August 1964 to (S. & R. Rosenberg, London);[6] (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York); purchased 27 May 1965 by NGA.
[1] Gaetano Zancon, Galleria inedita raccolta da privati gabinetti Milanesi, Milan, 1812: no. 5.
[2] Pietro Selvatico in Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, 5 (1849): 188. Otto Mündler saw the painting in April and October 1856; see "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler," ed. Carol Togneri Dowd, Walpole Society 51 (1985): 135, 180, 278, 297.
[3] The following is inscribed on the cradle: "Andrea Mantegna, della collezione del Conte de Mejan, e poi da quella del Conte Castellani di Torino" (see Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:410).
[4] The catalogue of the Napier collection, mainly compiled by J.C. Robinson, was privately printed in London in 1865 (see Tancred Borenius, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, 3 vols., London, 1913-1915: 1[1913]:no. 119). Robinson most likely sold the painting to Napier, a friend.
[5] Borenius 1913, 1(1913):no. 119.
[6] See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1861

  • Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French, and English Masters, British Institution, London, 1861, no. 8, as The Children of Medea rescued by the Nurse by Andrea Mantegna.

1894

  • Exhibition of Pictures, Drawings & Photographs of Works of the School of Ferrara-Bologna, 1440-1540, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1894, no. 7, as Medea and Her Children (?) attributed to Ercole de' Roberti.

1920

  • Winter Exhibition, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1920-1921.

1930

  • Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 207 (no. 212 in commemorative catalogue published 1931; no. 80 in souvenir catalogue).

1947

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, England, 1947-1958.

1964

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, Manchester Art Gallery, England, 1964.

1969

  • In Memoriam, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, unnumbered checklist.

1999

  • Ercole de'Roberti: The Renaissance in Ferrara, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1999, no. VI, repro.

Bibliography

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 115.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 102, repro.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:122.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 308, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:408-410; 2:pl. 287.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 118, no. 103, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 354, repro.

  • Mündler, Otto. "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler." Ed. Carol Togneri Dowd. Walpole Society 51 (1985): 135, 179, 180, 278, 297.

1991

  • 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: fig. 9.

1992

  • Manca, Joseph. The Art of Ercole de’ Roberti. Cambridge, 1992: 14, 59-61, 133-136, fig. 17a.

1993

  • Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 500.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 607-612, color repro.

2004

  • Danziger, Elon. "The Cook Collection: Its Founder and Its Inheritors." The Burlington Magazine 146, no. 1216 (July 2004): 444-458.

2009

  • Roberts, Perri Lee. Corpus of Early Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections: The South. 3 vols. Athens, GA, 2009: 2:294.

2023

  • Kondziella, Martha. Sodoma: Die Tafel- und Leinwanbilder. Merzhausen, 2023: 316 n. 1860.

Wikidata ID

Q3860075

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