1 / 1

download image
This image is in the public domain. You can copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Learn more about our image policies.

Alvise Vivarini

Saint Jerome Reading, c. 1476

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 12

Medium

tempera on panel

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.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1939.1.311

Artists / Makers

Alvise Vivarini (artist) Venetian, 1442/1453 - 1503/1505

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower right on a cartello: LVDVVICVS VIVA / RINVS . PINXIT

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[3] Tancred Borenius, "An Unpublished Work by Alvise Vivarini," Der Cicerone 22 (1930): 500, repro. 501.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

Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Douglas, Robert Langton
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Locker-Lampson, Godfrey Lampson Tennyson

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.

1968: 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.

1975: 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.

1979: 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.

1980: 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.

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.