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Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo

Elijah Fed by the Raven, c. 1510

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 22

Medium

oil on panel transferred to canvas

Dimensions

overall: 168 x 135.6 cm (66 1/8 x 53 3/8 in.)

framed: 199.1 x 166.2 x 8.6 cm (78 3/8 x 65 7/16 x 3 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.35

Artists / Makers

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo (artist) Brescian, c. 1480 - 1548 or after

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Possibly commissioned c. 1510 by a Carmelite monastery in Brescia, Italy; probably sold into the Manfrin collection, Venice, formed in part by Girolamo Manfrin [d. 1801]; by inheritance to Pietro Manfrin; by inheritance to Giulia-Giovanna Manfrin-Plattis [d. 1848/1849];[1] collection divided between Marquis Antonio-Maria Plattis and Bortolina Plattis, widow of Baron Sardagna; (Plattis sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13 May 1870, no. 73). Charles A. Loeser [1864-1928], Florence, from the 1890s; by inheritance to his daughter, Mrs. Ronald Calnan, Milan; sold 1954 to (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[2] sold 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] The 1851 manuscript inventory is in the archives of the National Gallery, London. For more information on the dispersal of the Manfrin collection, see Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd ed., London, 1961: 135.

[2] According to Kress collection records in NGA curatorial files.

[3] On 7 June 1954 the Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini Bonacossi for sixteen paintings, including the NGA painting which was listed as The Prophet Elijah by Savoldo. In a draft of one of the documents prepared for the Count's signature in connection with the offer this painting is described as one "which came from my personal collection in Florence." The Count accepted the offer on 30 June 1954; the final payment for the purchase was ultimately made in early 1957, after the Count's death in 1955. (See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files and The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/700).

Associated Names

Calnan, Ronald, Mrs.
Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Drouot, Hôtel
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Loeser, Charles A.
Manfrin Collection
Manfrin-Plattis, Guilia-Giovanna
Plattis, Bortolina

Exhibition History

1939: La Pittura Bresciana del Rinascimento, Palazzo Tosio-Martinengo, Brescia, 1939, no. 156, repro.

1990: Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo: tra Foppa Giorgione e Caravaggio, Moastero S. Giulia, Brescia, 1990, no. I.2, and Schirn Kunsthalle, (as Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo und die Renaissance zwischen Lombardei und Venetien, no. I.4).

Bibliography

1956: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 162, no. 63, repro.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 162, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 121.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 108, repro.

1968: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 89-90, fig. 215.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 322, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:418-419; 2:pl. 299.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 223, no. 274, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 369, repro.

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. 17.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 107, no. 82, color repro.

2007: Mancini, Vincenzo. “Un inedito Dosso giovanile e un Dosso mancato.” 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: 122.

2018: Casciello, Alberto Maria. "Per l'iconografia del profeta Elia di Girolamo Savoldo." Rivista dell'Istituto Nazionale d'Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte 73 (III S., XLI, 2018): 245-282, figs. 1 and 4, 5, 8, 9, 22-24 (details).