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[3] Tancred Borenius, "An Unpublished Work by Alvise Vivarini," Der Cicerone 22 (1930): 500, repro. 501.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

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.