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Inscription

center left on woodcut: O s...a elisab. / O... / ...

Provenance

Possibly private collection, Genoa.[1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence, by 1937);[2] purchased 1937 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1961 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1994
Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, no. 12, repro.
2001
Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's 'Ginevra de' Benci' and Renaissance Portraits of Women, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2001-2002, no. 14B, color repro.
2002
Jan van Eyck, de Vlaamse Primitieven en het Zuiden [Jan van Eyck, Early Netherlandish Painting and Southern Europe], Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 2002, no. 12, fig. 125 (with NGA 1961.9.10), repro. (catalogue titled The Age of Van Eyck, 1430-1530: The Mediterranean World and Early Netherlandish Painting).
2005
The Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 2005-2006, not in cat. (shown only in Washington).
2018
Colard Mansion: Incunabula, Prints and Manuscripts in Medieval Bruges, Stedelijke Musea Brugge, Bruges, 2018, no. 99, repro.

Technical Summary

Wooden strips appx. 0.5 cm wide have been attached to all sides of the original oak panel, which has been planed down, mounted on a thin layer of softwood, and cradled. Both this panel and 1961.9.10 are made from single boards, each cut from the same tree. The painting was restored by Stephen Pichetto about 1938. The paint surface is in general in very good condition. There are scattered small retouchings in the face, robe, and background, as well as some larger areas of repaint. These are in the wall just above the figure's hands, at the left edge of the painting above the book, and at the bottom of the dress. Infrared reflectography and infrared photographs show that the prie-dieu was painted over the floor tiles and the robe of the donor. Guidelines for the tiled floor also extend beneath the donor's robe. Before the inclusion of the prie-dieu, the wall of the chamber met the tiled floor appx. 10 cm from the bottom edge of the panel. This junction is also visible in raking light.

Bibliography

1924
Friedländer, Max J. Die altniederländische Malerei 14 vols. 1924-1937. Leiden, 1937: 14:78-79. (English ed., 14 vols., 1967-1976. Leiden, 1967: 1:104, 110, pl. 104.)
1938
Burroughs, Alan. Art Criticism from a Laboratory. Boston, 1938: 250.
1946
Friedländer, Max J. "The Death of the Virgin by Petrus Christus." The Burlington Magazine 88 (1946): 159, pls. IIA-B.
1948
Puyvelde, Leo van. The Flemish Primitives. Brussels, 1948: 27, pl. 53.
1951
Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces." Art News 50 no. 7 (November 1951): 100-101, repro. 103.
1951
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 170, no. 75, repro. 173.
1952
Bazin, Germain. "Petrus Christus et les rapports entre l'Italie et la Flandre au milieu du XVe siècle." La Revue des Arts 2 (1952): 199, 208.
1952
Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 100-101, repro. 103
1953
Panofsky Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1953: 1:313, 430-431, 491.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 58.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 279, repro., as A Donor's Wife.
1960
Broadley Hugh T. Flemish Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 5 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 5, 20-21, color repro.
1961
Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 72, 208, fig. 64.
1962
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 52, color repro.
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 304, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 27.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:78-79, color repro.
1968
Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting, from Pucelle to Bruegel: Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries. New York, 1968: 133, fig. 158.
1968
Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 106, 108, color repro.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 20, repro.
1968
Ward, John L. "A New Look at the Friedsam Annunciation." The Art Bulletin 50 (1968): 187.
1969
Blum, Shirley Neilsen. Early Netherlandish Triptychs. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969: 117.
1970
Lane, Barbara G. "Petrus Christus: A Reconstructed Triptych with an Italian Motif." The Art Bulletin 52 (1970): 390-393, figs. 1, 3.
1971
Schabacker, Peter H., and Barbara G. Lane. Exchange of letters. The Art Bulletin 53 (1971): 281-283.
1972
Schabacker, Peter H. Review of Rogier van der Weyden by Martin Davies. In The Art Quarterly 35 (1972): 424.
1974
Schabacker, Peter H. Petrus Christus. Utrecht, 1974: 51, 55, 108-109, 112-114, 120, 136, no. 18, fig. 18.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 68, repro.
1975
Gellman, Lola B. Review of Petrus Christus by Peter H. Schabacker. In Simiolus 8 (1975/1976): 33.
1975
Upton, Joel M. "Devotional Imagery and Style in the Washington Nativity by Petrus Christus." Studies in the History of Art 7 (1975): 52, fig 2.
1976
Sterling, Charles. "Tableaux espagnols et un chef d'oeuvre portugais méconnus du XVe siècle." Acats del XXIII congreso internacional de historia del arte. ... Granada, 1973. 3 vols. Granada, 1976: 1:501-502, fig. 6.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 51-54, fig. 49, text fig. 17, as Donatrix.
1977
Eisler, Colin. Review of Petrus Christus by Peter H. Schabacker. In Art Bulletin 59 (1977): 141.
1978
Panhans-Bühler, Ursula. Eklektizismus und Originalität im Werk des Petrus Christus. Vienna, 1978: 118-123, fig. 75.
1979
Campbell, Lorne. Review of Eklektizismus und Originalität im Werk des Petrus Christus by Ursula Panhans-Bühler. Burlington Magazine 121, no. 921 (December 1979): 802.
1979
Collier, James M. "The Kansas City Petrus Christus: Its Importance and Dating." The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin 5, no. 5 (September 1979): 27, 31, 36, fig. 6.
1980
Paolini, Maria Grazia. "Problemi antonelliani Rapporti tra pittura fiamminga e italiana." Storia dell'arte 38-40 (1980): 164-165.
1980
Scott, Margaret. The History of Dress Series. Late Gothic Europe, 1400-1500. London, 1980: 165, 241, fig. 96, pls. 6-7.
1981
Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. "A Newly Discovered Eyckian St. John the Baptist in a Landscape." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67 (1981): 115, 118.
1984
Eisler, Colin T. "A Nativity Signed PETRUS XPI ME FECIT 1452." In Liber Amicorum Herman Liebaers. Brussels, 1984: 465.
1984
Sterling, Charles. "A la recherche des oeuvres de Zanetto Bugatto: une nouvelle piste." In Scritti di storia dell'arte in onore di Federico Zeri. 2 vols. Milan, 1984: 1:177.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. Washington, 1984: 122, no. 105, color repro., as A Donor and His Wife.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 88, repro.
1986
Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 49-55, repro. 51.
1995
Fronek, Joel. "Painting Techniques, and Their Effects and Changes in the Los Angeles Portrait of a Man by Christus." in Maryan Ainsworth, ed.Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach, New York and Begium, 1995: 179.
1995
Gellman, Lola B. "Two Lost Portraits by Petrus Christus." in Maryan Ainsworth, ed. ) Petrus Christus in Renaissance Bruges: An Interdisciplinary Approach. New York and Begium, 1995:107, 108.
2001
Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002: no. 14b.
2002
Parma, Elena. "Genoa--Gateway to the South." In Borchert, Till-Holger. The Age of Van Eyck: The Mediterranean World and Early Netherlandish Painting 1430-1530. Exh. cat. Groeningemuseum, Bruges, 2002. London, 2002: 106, fig. 125.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 47, no. 34, color repro.
2005
Schmidt, Peter. "The Multiple Image: The Beginnings of Printmaking, Between Old Theories and New Approaches." In The Origins of European Printmaking Exh. cat. Washington 2005. Edited by Peter Parshall and Rainer Schoch. New Haven, 2005: 41-42, color fig. 1.
2012
Jacobs, Lynn F. Opening Doors: The Netherlandish Triptych Reinterpreted. University Park, Pa., 2012: 122-125, fig. 46.

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