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Bernhard Strigel

Saint Mary Cleophas and Her Family, c. 1520/1528

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 35-A

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 125.5 x 65.8 cm (49 7/16 x 25 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.88

Artists / Makers

Bernhard Strigel (artist) German, 1460/1461 - 1528

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

on halo of female figure: SANCTA MARIA CLEOP[H?]E; on halo of naked child: SANCTVS IVDAS XPI APOSTOLV; on halo of middle child: SCTVS SIMON; on halo of standing child: ST[ ]SANCTVS IOSEPHI; on halo of child playing with dog: SANCTVS IACOBVS MINOR AIPHE

Provenance

Possibly O. Streber, Munich.[1] (Haskard Bank, Florence, and Charles Fairfax Murray, as agent, by 1900);[2] sold 1900 to (Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London); sold May 1900 to Rodolphe Kann [d. 1905], Paris;[3] by descent to executors of the Kann estate: Edouard Kann, Paris; Betty Schnaffer [née Kann], Frankfurt; Martin and Eleanore [née Kann] Bromberg, Hamburg; Jacob and Mathilde [née Kann] Emden, Hamburg, and Edmond and Madeline [née Kann] Bickard See, Paris.[4] (Duveen Brothers, Paris, August 1907);[5] purchased August 1907 by members of the Kann family, possibly Martin and Eleanore Bromberg, Hamburg.[6] Probably Dr. Max Emden, Switzerland, by 1939.[7] (Wildenstein & Co., New York, by 1939);[8] purchased February 1954 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[9] Denver Art Museum, Colorado, 1954-1958; at the NGA from February, 1958;[10] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] Unverified, cited by Alfred Stange, Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. 3 vols. (Munich, 1970), 2:204, no. 899.

[2] Letter of 24 January 1969, from Richard Kingzett, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, to Colin Eisler, in NGA curatorial files.

[3] Kingzett letter of 24 January 1969 cited above.

[4] Duveen stockbook in archives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; see letter of 23 February 1987 from Guy Bauman, Department of European Paintings to John Hand in NGA curatorial files.

[5] Guy Bauman letter cited above and Edward Fowles, Memories of Duveen Brothers (London, 1976), 36-43.

[6] Bauman letter, cited in note 4, notes that in both the stockbook and the salesbook, the paintings are listed only as having been sold to "Kann relations."

[7] Wildenstein & Co. brochure in NGA Kress files lists Bromberg and Dr. Emden as previous owners.

[8] Letter of 14 September 1988 from Ay-Whang Hsia, Wildenstein & Co., to John Hand, in NGA curatorial files.

[9] The bill of sale (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1873) is dated February 10, 1954, and was for a total of fourteen paintings; payments by the Foundation continued to March 1957.

[10] William E. Suida, Paintings and Sculpture of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. (Denver, 1954), 64, no. 28; letter of 10 November 1987 to John Hand from Louise H. Kliopov, Denver Art Museum, in NGA curatorial files. Eisler 1977, 26, reversed the exhibition dates for this and the Saint Mary Salome and Her Family also by Strigel.

Associated Names

Agnew & Sons, Ltd., Thomas
Bickard See, Edmond and Madeline
Bromberg, Martin and Eleonore
Denver Art Museum
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Emden, Jacob and Mathilde, Dr.
Haskard Bank
Kann, Rodolphe
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Murray, Charles Fairfax
Schnaffer, Betty
Streber, O.
Wildenstein & Co., Inc.

Exhibition History

1940: Seventh Anniversary Exhibition of German, Flemish, and Dutch Painting, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art -- Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, 1940-1941, no. 56, as The Holy Family.

1950: Holbein and His Contemporaries, John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, 1950, no. 68.

Technical Summary

The painting is on a panel composed of three boards, with vertical grain, of nearly equal width.[1] In 1947 the panel was thinned, marouflaged to mahogany, and cradled. The ground is applied rather thickly, as indicated by the relatively deeply incised decoration in the gilding. The bole is reddish in tone. Examination with infrared reflectography discloses extensive underdrawing in what appears to be a liquid medium applied with a brush. The expressive, individual style is often characterized, particularly in areas of drapery, by calligraphic strokes ending in hooks or circles.

The picture is essentially in good condition. Some worm tunneling has occurred in the past. There is some flaking and lifting of paint in areas, generally around the figures' heads, where paint is applied over gold and adhesion is poor. Retouching occurs along the joins, some contours, and most heavily in the body of the naked infant. There appear to have been two applications of retouching.

[1] The wood was identified as fir by Michael Palmer, National Gallery's scientific research department; Eisler 1977 listed the support of this painting and 1961.9.89 as linden.

Bibliography

1907: Baum, Julius. "Strigel." In Thieme-Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 32(1938):189.

1907: Bode, Wilhelm von. Catalogue of the Rodolphe Kann Collection. 2 vols. Paris, 1907: 2: nos. 115-116, repro.

1914: Weizinger, Franz Xavier. "Die Maler-Familie der `Strigel' in der ehemals freien Reichsstadt Memmingen." Festschrift des Münchener Altertums-verein zur Erinnerung an das 50. Jahr Jubiläum. 1914: 143, no. 31.

1928: Weizinger, Franz Xavier. "Bernhard Strigel 1460-1528." Memminger Geschichts-Blätter 14 (June 1928): 10.

1934: Stange, Alfred. Deutsche Malerei der Gotik. 11 vols. Berlin and Munich, 1934-1961. Munich, 1957: 8:144, fig. 299.

1940: Gardner, Paul. "Northern Painting: 1400-1700: Netherlandish & German Renaissance-Baroque Panorama." Art News 39 (7 December 1940):7+, repro.

1940: Parnassus 12 (December 1940):33, repro.

1951: Otto, Gertrud. "Zwei Sippenbilder von Bernhard Strigel." Memminger Geschichts-Blätter, 1951: 1-2.

1954: Suida, William E. Paintings and Sculpture of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Denver, 1954: 64, no. 28, repro.

1955: Bach, Otto Karl, et al. "European Art. The Denver Art Museum Collection." Denver Art Museum Winter Quarterly (1955): 15, no. 31, repro. 14.

1956: Frankfurter, Alfred. "Crystal Anniversary in the Capital." Art News 55, no. 1 (March 1956): 26, repro.

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: 172, no. 68, repro. 173.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 312, repro.

1959: Rettich, Edeltraud. "Bernhard Strigel. Ergänzungen und Berichtigungen zu: Alfred Stange `Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, VIII. Band, Schwaben'." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 22 (1959): 163-165.

1960: Broadley Hugh T. German Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 9 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 34-35, color repro.

1964: Otto, Gertrud. Bernhard Strigel. Munich and Berlin, 1964: 48, 50-51, 98, no. 38 a, b, repro. 47, 49 (color), figs. 94-95.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 125.

1967: Stange, Alfred. Kritisches Verzeichnis der deutschen Tafelbilder vor Dürer. 3 vols. Munich, 1970: 2:204, no. 899 a, b.

1968: Musper, Heinrich Theodor. "Strigel, Bernhard." In Kindlers Malerei Lexikon,edited by Germain Bazin, et al. 6 vols. Zürich, 1964-1971. Zürich, 1968: 5:436.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 112, repro.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 334, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 151, nos. 161, 162, repro. 150.

1977: Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 26-28, fig. 18.

1980: Thümmel, Hans Georg. "Bernhard Strigels Diptychon für Cuspinian." Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 76 (1980): 108, n. 36.

1983: Wolff, Martha. German Art of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: unpaginated, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 151, no. 155, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 383, repro.

1989: Michaelis, Rainer. Deutsche Gemälde 14. - 18. Jahrhundert Staatliche Museeen zu Berlin. Gemäldegalerie. Katalog Band III. Berlin, 1989: 110.

1993: Hand, John Oliver, with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1993: 173-180, color repro. 174.

1995: Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 19-20.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 140, no. 108, color repro.