The Trojans Building the Temple to Venus and Making Offerings at Anchises's Grave in Sicily, c. 1520

[1] This painting and NGA 1939.1.250 are two halves of a canvas divided probably sometime in the late nineteenth century. The original intact canvas was one of ten paintings by Dosso featuring scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid placed as a frieze above a series of mythologies painted by Titian, Bellini, and Dosso. The earliest direct reference to the Aeneid scenes 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 and Christie’s sale catalogue entry (22 April 2021, lot 22) provide much of the detail of this provenance; see also the following notes as well as email from Humfrey dated 29 May 2021 in NGA curatorial files.

[2] Alfonso II d’Este died childless and his cousin Cesare d’Este (1562-1628) inherited Ferrara. However, Pope Clement VIII refused to recognize the legitimacy of his succession and instead absorbed the duchy into the Papal States in 1598. Cesare moved to Modena and never took possession of the paintings.

[3] 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.

[4] This painting and NGA 1939.1.250, still joined, may almost certainly be identified with an item recorded in the Borghese inventory of 1693, which included the ten paintings of the series described vaguely in terms of dimensions and subjects. As noted in Christie’s 2021 sale catalogue (see note 1), the painting in its original format is probably no. 192, described as “…un quadro longo con paesi e Marine con figure e vascello del No 2 del Dosi de ferrara con cornice dorata" (an oblong painting with landscape and seascape, figures, and a vessel, by Dosso of Ferrara, belonging to no. 2, 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; cited in Humfrey 2020: 155, n. 8. The NGA painting is listed in issue no. 28 (1964): 452, no. 192. As noted by Humfrey, the frieze canvases are no longer mentioned in a Borghese inventory of c. 1790.

[5] For details of the Princes of Sulmona (Borghese) lineage, see Christie's 2021 sale catalogue.

[6] A multi-volume dictionary from 1847 lists the uncut painting as among the ten canvases from Dosso’s frieze acquired by Madrazo from the Borghese princes in Rome. (Vincenzo Farinella, Alfonso I d’Este. Le immagini e il potere, Milan, 2014: 505-506, n. 60). It is likely to be no. 7, titled “Recompocision que hacen los Frigios de sus naves” (The Phrygians [Trojans] repairing their ships). D. José Rojas, ed., Diccionari geográfico-estadistico-histórico de España y su posesiones de Ultramar por Pascual Madoz, X, Madrid, 1847, p. 860. The dictionary provides no dimensions, but they are given in an 1856 catalogue of the Madrazo collection. Renato Berzaghi, “Una segnalazione per le ‘Storie di Enea’ di Dosso Dossi,” Prospettiva, nos. 139/140 (2010): 135-136; cited in Humfrey 2020: 155, n.7. Madrazo, a Spanish neoclassical painter and later director of the Prado, spent the years from 1803 to 1819 in Rome. The 1856 catalogue confirms their presence in his collection in Madrid at that date, as well as the earlier Borghese provenance, and provides exact dimensions, detailed descriptions of the subjects, and the books of The Aeneid from which they are taken. The NGA paintings, still intact, are listed as no. 77, 59 x 183 cm, the subject taken from Book V: “Reparans los Troyanos sus naves en la ribera del mar junta á un grupo de árboles” (The Trojans repairing their ships on the seashore near a group of trees), which places the scene in Sicily (Humfrey 2020: 142-143).

[7] Madrazo and Salamanca provenance information from Christie’s 2021 catalogue. The still-intact painting, with dimensions of .59 x 1.83 m and same title as in the 1856 Madrazo catalogue cited in footnote 6, is included in the 1865 catalogue of the Marqués de Salamanca's collection of paintings, no. 77. Copy in NGA curatorial files.

[8] See correspondence from Christie’s in NGA curatorial file.