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On the right side of this horizontal painting, two light-skinned men stand close to us on a spit of land separated from the rest of the scene by stretch of water that leads back to a town on the far shore. People gather on and around two boats floating in the water between the spit of land to our right and a copse of trees to our left. Beginning with the pair of men to our right: one man looking toward us has a broad forehead and grizzled blond beard. He wears a brick-red and canary-yellow turban, a yellow and crimson-red striped doublet with puffy sleeves, and a red codpiece. His scarlet-red hose have decorative slashes down the thigh to show yellow fabric underneath. He holds one long sword in his left hand, to our right, so the blade rests on that shoulder, and another sword hangs in a scabbard on his waist. Facing him, to our right, is the second man. He has a dark beard and a broad red hat trimmed with white feathers. He wears a doublet with wide red and white horizontal stripes and a white codpiece. His close-fitting white hose have thin, dark lines running from his waist to his feet, like pinstripes. He rests the back of his left hand, closer to us, on his hip. The tip of a long sword rests between his feet, and his far hand holds the hilt, which is as tall as his shoulder. Both men wear slipper-like shoes. Beyond this pair, near the center of the composition, a dozen men work on the wooden ships in the waterway. The trees to our left have feathery canopies of dense green foliage highlighted with butter yellow. A red pennant flutters in the wind near the left edge of the painting. About two dozen men, women, and children sit and stand closely under the trees. They wear capes, robes, turbans, and headdresses in aquamarine blue, marigold orange, burgundy red, cream white, and laurel green. Several of them are turned toward a woman dressed in blue holding an infant. Along the far shoreline, to our right, a city with tan-colored, stone towers glows under a soft topaz-blue sky, mirrored in the luminous blue water, as a ship with a billowing white sail passes by. On the distant horizon, high mountain peaks are faintly visible through a steel-blue haze.

Dosso Dossi

The Trojans Repairing Their Ships in Sicily, c. 1520

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 17

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 58.7 × 87.6 cm (23 1/8 × 34 1/2 in.)

framed: 83.5 × 205.3 × 8.5 cm (32 7/8 × 80 13/16 × 3 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1939.1.250

Artists / Makers

Dosso Dossi (painter) Ferrarese, active 1512 - 1542

Image Use

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

Overview

The obscure iconography of Dosso's canvas has caused much speculation. In the past it has been titled simply Scene from a Legend and, more often, Departure of the Argonauts. The present title refers instead to an event in Virgil's Aeneid. Designed to celebrate the origin and growth of the Roman Empire, the Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas, who after the fall of Troy and seven years wandering, founded a settlement on the Italian peninsula, establishing the Roman state. The story of Aeneas and Achates is taken from Book I of the Aeneid, where Aeneas and his faithful companion Achates, their journey just begun, take refuge on the Libyan coast after their ships are wrecked in a storm.

Two other surviving scenes from the Aeneid by Dosso have been located, one in England, the other in Canada, and along with the Washington canvas have been identified as part of a frieze of ten pictures painted by the artist for the camerino, or study of Alfonso d'Este in his castle at Ferrara. Dosso Dossi was greatly influenced by Venetian art, especially the use of color and treatment of landscape as seen in works by Titian and Giorgione. He was perhaps best known in his time for soft, feathery landscapes and scenes of everyday life that are nevertheless infused with a touch of fantasy.

Provenance

Commissioned by 1520/21 by Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara [1476–1534] for the Camerino d’Alabastro of the Castello Estense in Ferrara;[1] by inheritance to his son, Ercole II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara [1534–1559]; by inheritance to his son Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara [1533–1597];[2] removed as early as 1608 from the Camerino d'Alabastro, when acquired by Cardinal Scipione Borghese [1577–1633], Rome;[3] by inheritance to his cousin Marcantonio II Borghese [1601-1658], 1st Prince of Sulmona, Rome; by inheritance to his grandson Giovanni Battista Borghese [1639–1717], 2nd Prince of Sulmona, Rome;[4] probably by descent to Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese [1775-1832], 6th Prince of Sulmona, Rome;[5] José de Madrazo y Agudo [1781–1859], Madrid, certainly by 1847, but probably acquired between 1803 and 1819;[6] possibly by inheritance to Federico Madrazo y Kuntz (1815-1894), Madrid; purchased probably 1861 by José de Salamanca y Mayol (1811-1883), Marqués of Salamanca, Madrid.[7] Hans Wendland, Basel; sold 1925 to (Kunsthandel AG, Lucerne); sold 1927 through (Julius Böhler, Munich and Luzerne) to (Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi [1878–1955], Florence and Rome);[8] sold 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[9] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] This painting and NGA 2021.6.1 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 for the other half of the painting (22 April 2021, no. 22), provide much of the detail of this provenance; see also the following notes as well as correspondence with Humfrey dated 29 May 2021 in NGA curatorial files.

[2] When Alfonso II d’Este died childless, 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 2021.6.1, 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. This half of the painting was previously mistakenly identified as no. 390 in the inventory. Instead, 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 Humfrey notes, 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 the entry for lot 22 (NGA 2021.6.1) in 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] The 1861 date purchase date comes from the provenance of 2021.6.1 as relayed by Christie's 2021 sale 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] The transfer from Hans Wendland to the Kunsthandel AG Lucerne, founded by Julius Böhler, and then to Contini-Bonacossi, is recorded in records of Julius Böhler held at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich. See inventory cards digitized at http://boehler.zikg.eu/karteikarten-bersicht. (Copies in NGA curatorial files). Dimensions on the cards indicate the canvas was cut by 1925.

[9] According to Kress records in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/141.

Associated Names

Borghese Collection
Böhler, Julius
Böhler, Julius
Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Este, Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso I d'
Este, Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II d'
Este, Duke of Ferrara, Ercole II d'
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Madrazo y Agudo, José de Don
Madrazo, Federico de
Salamanca, Marqués de
Wendland, Hans

Exhibition History

1933: Pitture Ferrarese del Rinascimento, Ferrara, 1933, no. 198, repro.

1939: Masterpieces of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800, New York World's Fair, 1939, no. 83, as Departure of the Argonauts, repro.

1996: Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 58-59, color repro.

1998: Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, Exhibit Halls, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1998-1999, no. 19, repro.

2023: Dosso Dossi: The Aeneas Frieze, Rome, Galleria Borghese, no. 5 (together with 2021.6.1), repro.

Bibliography

1865: Catalogo de la galeria de Cuadros de la posesion de Vista-Alegre, de propriedad del Ezcmo. Sr. Marques de Salamanca. Madrid, 1865: 25, no. 77.

1927: Longhi, Roberto. "Una Favola del Dosso." Vita Artistica 2 (May 1927): 92-95, repro. color plate, figs.1-3 (det.), as La partenza degli Argonauti (departure of the Argonauts).

1933: Barbantini, Nino. Catalogo della esposizione della pittura ferrarese del Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara. Venice, 1933: 162-163.

1933: Venturi, Adolfo. "L'esposizione della pittura ferrarese del Rinascimento per il Cenenario Ariostesco." L'Arte 36 (1933): 386.

1934: Longhi, Roberto. Officina Ferrarese. Rome, 1934. Reprinted in Edizione delle opere complete di Roberto Longhi. 14 vols. Florence, 1961-1984: 5(1956):86.

1935: Buscaroli, Renzo. La Pittura di Paesaggio in Italia. Bologna, 1935: 216.

1940: Suida, Wilhelm. "Die Sammlung Kress: New York." Pantheon 26 (1940): 280.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 58, no. 361, as Scene from a Legend.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro., as Scene from a Legend.

1948: Tietze-Conrat, Erika. "Two Dosso Puzzles in Washington and New York." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 33 (1948): 129-136.

1949: Suida, Wilhelm. "Lucrezia Borgia: In Memoriam." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 35 (1949): 284.

1952: Gilbert, Creighton. "On Subject and Not-subject in Italian Renaissance Pictures." The Art Bulletin 34 (1952): 205.

1956: Longhi, Roberto. Officina ferrarese (1934), seguíta dagli Ampliamenti (1940) e dai Nuovi ampliamenti (1940-1955). Florence, 1956: 86.

1957: Arslan, Edoardo. “Una Natività di Dosso Dossi.” Commentari 8 (1957): 260.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 169, repro., as Scene from a Legend.

1964: Antonelli Trenti, Maria Grazia. "Notizie e precisazioni sul Dosso giovane." Arte Antica e Moderna 28 (1964): 410.

1964: Dreyer, Peter. "Die Entwicklung des jungen Dosso. Ein Beitrag zur Chronologie des Meisters biz zum Jahre 1522." Pantheon n.s. 22 (1964): 363.

1964: Pergola, Paola Della. "L'Inventario Borghese del 1693 (II)." Arte Antica e Moderna 28 (1964): 452, no. 192.

1965: Dreyer, Peter. "Die Entwicklung des jungen Dosso. Ein Beitrag zur Chronologie des Meisters bis zum Jahre 1522." Pantheon 23 (1965): 24.

1965: Mezzetti, Amalia. "Le 'Storie di Enea' del Dosso nel 'camerino d'alabastro' di Alfonso I d'Este." Paragone 189-190 (1965): 71-84.

1965: Puppi, Lionello. Dosso Dossi. I Maestri di Colore 78. Milan, 1965.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 43, as Scene from a Legend.

1966: Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568. Ed. Rosanna Bettarini and Paola Barocchi. 8 vols. Florence, 1966-1987: 6(1987):158.

1968: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:114, as Departure of the Argonauts.

1968: Gibbons, Felton. Dosso and Battista Dossi: Court Painters at Ferrara. Princeton, 1968: 91, 114, 123-124, 214-215.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 36, repro., as Scene from a Legend.

1968: Puppi, Lionello. "A Monograph on Dosso Dossi." The Burlington Magazine 110 (1968): 360.

1968: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 73-74, fig. 183.

1971: Freedberg, Sydney J. Painting in Italy 1500-1600. Harmondsworth, 1971, rev. ed. 1975: 316.

1971: Hope, Charles. "The 'Camerini d'Alabastro' of Alfonso d'Este." The Burlington Magazine 113 (1971): 643, n. 19.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 110, repro.

1978: Goodgal, Dana. "The Camerino of Alfonso I d'Este." Art History 1 (1978): 170-173.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:164-166; 2:pl. 115.

1982: Kaplan, Paul. "Titian's Laura Dianti and the Origins of the Motif of the Black Page in Portraiture." Antichità viva 21 (1982): 13.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 133, repro.

1986: Humfrey, Peter. "Dosso Dossi." In The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Exh. cat. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986: 114-115.

1987: Brown, Beverly L. "On the Camerino." In Görel Cavalli-Björkman, ed. Bacchanals by Titian and Rubens: Papers given at a Symposium in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, March 18-19, 1987. Stockholm, 1987: 47-49.

1987: Cavalli-Björkman, Görel. "Camerino d’Alabastro: A Renaissance Room in Ferrara." Nationalmuseum Bulletin 11 (1987): 75, 89.

1987: Laskin, Myron, and Michael Pantazzi, eds. European and American Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Vol. 1: 1300-1800. Catalogue of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Ottawa, 1987: 94-95.

1990: Bull, David. "Introduction." Studies in the History of Art 40 (1990): 11, 15, repro. no. 8.

1992: National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 33, repro.

1993: Ballarin, Alessandro. "Dosso Dossi." In Gilles Fage, ed. Le Siècle de Titien: L'âge d'or de la peinture à Venise. Paris, 1992: 409.

1993: Berrie, Barbara H., and Sarah L. Fisher. "A Technical Investigation of the Materials and Methods of Dosso Dossi." In Janet Bridgland, ed. 10th Triennial Meeting, Washington, DC, 22-27 August 1993: Preprints. ICOM Committee for Conservation. 2 vols. Paris and Lawrence, Kansas, 1993: 1:70-74.

1994: Ballarin, Alessandro. Dosso Dossi: La Pittura a Ferrara negli anni del Ducato di Alfonso I. 2 vols. Cittadella, 1994-1995: 2(1995):40, 45, 71-73, 309-310.

1994: Del Bravo, Carlo. "L'Equicola e il Dosso." Artibus et historiae 30 (1994): 81.

1998: Humfrey, Peter, and Maruo Lucco. Dosso Dossi. Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara. Ed. Andrea Bayer. Exh. cat. Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Ferrara; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1998-1999: 130-132.

2000: Christiansen, Keith. "Dosso Dossi's Aeneas Frieze for Alfonso d'Este's Camerino." Apollo 151, no. 455 (January 2000): 36-45, fig. 11.

2003: Ghersi, Lorenzo Finocchi. "Dosso Dossi, Giovanni Bellini e Tiziano nei "Camarini" di Alfonso I d'Este." Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Arte 27 (2003): 216, 217.

2007: Farinella, Vicenzo. "L'Eneide' di Dosso per Alfonso d'Este (ed altre mitologie)." In Alessandro Ballarin, ed. Il Camerino delle Pitture di Alfonso I. 6: Dosso Dossi e La Pittura a Ferrara negli anni Del Ducato di Alfonso I. Atti del Convegno di Studio, Padova, Palazzo del Bo, 9-11 maggio 2001. Padua, 2007: 308-309, 326, 331.

2010: Berzaghi, Renato. "Una segnalazione per le 'Storie di Enea' di Dosso Dossi." Prospettiva 139-140 (2010): 135, repro. 136.

2013: "Vasari and the National Gallery of Art." National Gallery of Art Bulletin 48 (Spring 2013): 20, repro.

2014: Farinella, Vincenzo, et al. Alfonso I d'Este: le immagini e il potere, da Ercole de' Roberti a Michelangelo. Milan, 2014: 529-532, fig. 233.

2020: Humfrey, Peter. "More on Dosso's Aeneas Frieze." Artibus et historiae no. 81 (2020): 137-156, 139, fig. 3, as The Trojans Repairing their Ships at Acesta, 143 fig. 9, as left half of The Trojans at Acesta.

2021: Straussman-Pflanzer, Eve. "Gifts & Acquisitions." Art for the Nation no. 64 (Fall 2021): 20-21, repro.