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The Marriage of the Virgin
Luca Signorellic. 1490/1491
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Details
- Title: The Marriage of the Virgin
- Creator: Luca Signorelli
- Date Created: c. 1490/1491
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 21.6 x 48 cm (8 1/2 x 18 7/8 in.) framed: 34.6 x 61 x 5.1 cm (13 5/8 x 24 x 2 in.)
- Provenance: Thomas Blayds, London; (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 30-31 March 1849, 1st day, no. 81, as _The Birth of St. John; and the companion_); Harris.[1] Edward Habich [1818-1901], Kassel, probably from the 1890s;[2] presented 1900 to the Königliche Gemäldegalerie, Kassel;[3] sold around 1920;[4] Rudolf Chillingworth, Nürnberg; (his sale, Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 5 September 1922, no. 111, in same lot as _Presentation of Virgin_);[5] (Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam), by 1930; Desirée Goudstikker von Saher, from 1949.[6] (Piero Tozzi [1882-1974], New York);[7] sold February 1955 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[8] gift 1961 to NGA. [1] The buyer's name at the Blayds sale appears in an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Getty Library, Los Angeles (copy in NGA curatorial files). [2] According to Oscar Eisenmann, _Ausgewählte Hanzeichmungen alterer Meilsler aus de Sammlung Edward Habich au Cassel_, Lübeck, 1890: n.p., preface, Habich built up his collection in 1880s. At the time of the 1892 sale of his collection (see _Katalog der ausgewählten und reichhaltigen Gemäldesammlung des Reutners herrn Edward Habich zu Cassel_, sale catalogue, Haberle, Cologne, 9-10 May 1892), the NGA painting was apparently not yet in his possession. [3] The date of the donation is given in _Katalog der Kniglichen Gemäldegalerie au Cassel_, Antiliche Ausgade Berlin, 1913: 63. Girolamo Mancini, _Luca Signorelli_, Florence, 1903, is the first to cite the painting as belonging to the Kassel Gallery. [4] Miklós Boskovits, author of the NGA systematic catalogue entry on the painting, could not find any record of the sale, which probably occurred in the years of Germany's economic and political crisis just after World War I. [5] About Chillingworth and the sale of his collection, see _Catalogue de la Collection Chillingworth, Tableaux anciens, XIIIe-XVIIe siècles_, 1922: 5 (for the sale held at the Grand Hotel National in Lucerne under the direction of Galeries Fischer, Lucerne, and Frederik Muller & Cie., Amsterdam, 5 September 1922), and "Versteigerung--Ergebnisse in Luzerne," _Kunstchronik Kunstmarkt_ 33 (1922): 49-50. [6] See _Catalogue des Nouvelles Acquisitions de la Collection Goudstikker_, a catalogue for an exhibition shown in Amsterdam and Rotterdam November 1930 and January 1931 (no. 39 in the series of catalogues published by the dealer Jacques Goudstikker). The NGA painting is no. 2585 in Goudstikker's personal record of the works of art he acquired, his so-called "Black Book," which indicates the dealer owned a half share of the painting with Dr. Hans Wenland (original in the Archive of Jacques Goudstikker and Desi Goudstikker-Halban, Amsterdam City Archives; copy in NGA curatorial files). The Goudstikker firm and most of its contents were sold in July 1940 to Alois Miedl, an agent of Hermann Goering, to whom Miedl subsequently sold some of the inventory. However, the July 1940 contract for the sale of the firm specifically noted that any works of art in which third parties held interest were not included in the sale (see C.I.R. #2 - The Goering Collection, 1945; Consolidated Interrogation Reports, 1945; Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, 1942-1946 [RG 239]; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington; RG239/Entry73/Box 80; copy in NGA curatorial files). The Goudstikker firm continued to operate throughout World War II under Miedl's direction. According to documents in the Dutch State Archives, the NGA painting was not sold to Goering. It was discovered in one of Miedl's buildings in the Netherlands after the war and returned to Goudstikker's widow, Desirée Goudstikker von Saher, on 18 May 1949 (Dutch State Archives ARA, NBI 857, nr. 7, copy in NGA curatorial files; see also letter dated 24 March 1999 from the Inspectie Cultuurbezit of the Netherlands, in NGA curatorial files.) [7] Possibly on half share with Aquavella Galleries, New York, according to Tozzi card no. 147, The Tozzi Archive, The Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art, Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (copy in NGA curatorial files). [8] The bill from Piero Tozzi to the Kress Foundation is dated 9 February 1955 (see copy in NGA curatorial files and The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2240).
- Medium: tempera on panel
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