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Aeneas and Achates on the Libyan Coast
Dosso Dossic. 1520
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
The obscure iconography of Dosso's canvas has caused much speculation. In the past it has been titled simply Scene from a Legend and, more often, Departure of the Argonauts. The present title refers instead to an event in Virgil's Aeneid. Designed to celebrate the origin and growth of the Roman Empire, the Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas, who after the fall of Troy and seven years wandering, founded a settlement on the Italian peninsula, establishing the Roman state. The story of Aeneas and Achates is taken from Book I of the Aeneid, where Aeneas and his faithful companion Achates, their journey just begun, take refuge on the Libyan coast after their ships are wrecked in a storm.
Two other surviving scenes from the Aeneid by Dosso have been located, one in England, the other in Canada, and along with the Washington canvas have been identified as part of a frieze of ten pictures painted by the artist for the camerino, or study of Alfonso d'Este in his castle at Ferrara. Dosso Dossi was greatly influenced by Venetian art, especially the use of color and treatment of landscape as seen in works by Titian and Giorgione. He was perhaps best known in his time for soft, feathery landscapes and scenes of everyday life that are nevertheless infused with a touch of fantasy.
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Details
- Title: Aeneas and Achates on the Libyan Coast
- Creator: Dosso Dossi
- Date Created: c. 1520
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 58.7 x 87.6 cm (23 1/8 x 34 1/2 in.) framed: 83.2 x 112.7 x 7.9 cm (32 3/4 x 44 3/8 x 3 1/8 in.)
- Provenance: Commissioned by 1520/21 by Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara [1476–1534] for the Camerino d’Alabastro of the Castello Estense in Ferrara;[1] by inheritance to his son, Ercole II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara [1534–1559]; by inheritance to his son Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara [1533–1597];[2] removed as early as 1608 from the Camerino d'Alabastro, when acquired by Cardinal Scipione Borghese [1577–1633], Rome;[3] by inheritance to his cousin Marcantonio II Borghese [1601-1658], 1st Prince of Sulmona, Rome; by inheritance to his grandson Giovanni Battista Borghese [1639–1717], 2nd Prince of Sulmona, Rome;[4] probably by descent to Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese [1775-1832], 6th Prince of Sulmona, Rome;[5] José de Madrazo y Agudo [1781–1859], Madrid, certainly by 1847, but probably acquired between 1803 and 1819;[6] possibly by inheritance to Federico Madrazo y Kuntz (1815-1894), Madrid; possibly purchased 1861 by José de Salamanca y Mayol (1811-1883), Marqués of Salamanca, Madrid.[7] (Kunsthandel A.G., Lucerne); sold 1926 to (Julius Böhler, Munich and Luzerne).[8] (Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi [1878–1955], Florence and Rome); sold 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[9] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] This painting and NGA 2021.6.1 are two halves of a canvas divided probably sometime in the late nineteenth century. The original intact canvas was one of ten paintings by Dosso featuring scenes from Virgil’s _Aeneid_ placed as a frieze above a series of mythologies painted by Titian, Bellini, and Dosso. The earliest direct reference to the _Aeneid_ scenes occurs in a somewhat garbled description by Giorgio Vasari in his _Life of Titian_ (1568): “Avendo l’anno 1514, il duca Alfonso da Ferrara fatto acconciare un camerino, ed in certi spartimenti fatto fare al Dosso, pittore ferrarese, istorie di Enea, di Marte e di Venere, et in una grotta Vulcano con due fabbri all fucina...” (“During the year 1514 Duke Alfonso of Ferrara caused to be decorated a small chamber, for which he commissioned the local painter Dosso to paint various compartments showing the stories of Aeneas, Mars and Venus, and in a grotto Vulcan with two smiths at the forge.”); Giorgio Vasari, _Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568_, edited by Rosanna Bettarini and Paola Barocchi, 8 vols., Florence, 1966-1987: 6(1987):158. The ten scenes were, according to Peter Humfrey, almost certainly painted in 1520-1521 (Peter Humfrey, “More on Dosso’s _Aeneas_ Frieze,” _Artibus et Historiae_ 81 [2020]: 137-156). Humfrey’s article and Christie’s sale catalogue entry for the other half of the painting (22 April 2021, lot 22), provide much of the detail of this provenance; see also the following notes as well as correspondence with Humfrey dated 29 May 2021 in NGA curatorial files. [2] When Alfonso II d’Este died childless, his cousin Cesare d’Este (1562-1628) inherited Ferrara. However, Pope Clement VII refused to recognize the legitimacy of his succession and instead absorbed the duchy into the Papal States in 1598. Cesare moved to Modena and never took possession of the paintings. [3] Writing to the Cardinal in March 1608 immediately before they were removed, the papal legate to Ferrara, Innocenzo Massimo, described the scenes as follows: “Et questi sono dieci pezzi che servono per fregio ad un Camerino; sono lunghi ogni pezzo una Canna et alto tre palmi rappresentano diverse azioni d’Enea, scritte da Virgilio sono bellissimi.” (“These consist of ten pieces forming the frieze of a small chamber; each is one canna wide by three palmi high; they represent different deeds by Aeneas, as recounted by Virgil; and they are very beautiful”.) See Amalia Mezzetti, “Le ‘Storie di Enea’ del Dosso nel ‘camerino d’alabastro’di Alfonso I d’Este,” _Paragone_ nos. 189–190 (1965): 82. One _canna architettonica romana_, comprising 10 _palmi architettonici_, was equivalent to 2.234 m; one _canna mercantile romana_, comprising 8 _palmi mercantile_, was equivalent to 1.992 m. Whichever method of measurement was adopted here, it is clear that the dimensions given by Massimo are only very approximate. [4] This painting and NGA 2021.6.1, still joined, may almost certainly be identified with an item recorded in the Borghese inventory of 1693, which included the ten paintings of the series described vaguely in terms of dimensions and subjects. This half of the painting was previously mistakenly identified as no. 390 in the inventory. Instead, as noted in Christie’s 2021 sale catalogue (see note 1), the painting in its original format is probably no. 192, described as “…un quadro longo con paesi e Marine con figure e vascello del No 2 del Dosi de ferrara con cornice dorata" (…an oblong painting with landscape and seascape, figures, and a vessel, by Dosso of Ferrara, belonging to no. 2, in a gilded frame). See P. Della Pergola, “L’inventario Borghese del 1693,” _Arte Antica e Moderna_, no. 26 (1964): 218-230, no. 28 (1964):451-467, no. 30 (1965):202-217; cited in Humfrey 2020: 155 n. 8. The NGA painting is listed in issue no. 28 (1964): 452, no. 192. As Humfrey notes, the frieze canvases are no longer mentioned in a Borghese inventory of c. 1790. [5] For details of the Princes of Sulmona (Borghese) lineage, see the entry for lot 22 (NGA 2021.6.1) in Christie's 2021 sale catalogue. [6] A multi-volume dictionary from 1847 lists the uncut painting as among the ten canvases from Dosso’s frieze acquired by Madrazo from the Borghese princes in Rome. (Vincenzo Farinella, _Alfonso I d’Este. Le immagini e il potere_, Milan, 2014: 505-506, n. 60). It is likely to be no. 7, titled “Recompocision que hacen los Frigios de sus naves” (The Phrygians [Trojans] repairing their ships). D. José Rojas, ed., _Diccionari geográfico-estadistico-histórico de España y su posesiones de Ultramar por Pascual Madoz_, X, Madrid, 1847, p. 860. The dictionary provides no dimensions, but they are given in an 1856 catalogue of the Madrazo collection. Renato Berzaghi, “Una segnalazione per le ‘Storie di Enea’ di Dosso Dossi,” _Prospettiva_, nos. 139/140 (2010): 135-136; cited in Humfrey 2020: 155 n.7. Madrazo, a Spanish neoclassical painter and later director of the Prado, spent the years from 1803 to 1819 in Rome. The 1856 catalogue confirms their presence in his collection in Madrid at that date, as well as the earlier Borghese provenance, and provides exact dimensions, detailed descriptions of the subjects, and the books of _The Aeneid_ from which they are taken. The NGA paintings, still intact, are listed as no. 77, 59 x 183 cm, the subject taken from Book V: “Reparans los Troyanos sus naves en la ribera del mar junta á un grupo de árboles” (The Trojans repairing their ships on the seashore near a group of trees), which places the scene in Sicily (Humfrey 2020: 142-143). [7] The possibility of the painting’s transfer from the Madrazo collection to Salamanca is based on the provenance of NGA 2021.6.1, drawn from Christie’s 2021 sale catalogue. The date the original canvas was divided in half is unknown, but given that the other paintings from the frieze purchased by Salamanca in 1861 remained uncut, it is possible the two NGA works were still intact at that point. See correspondence from Christie’s dated 17 September 2021 in NGA curatorial files. [8] Records of Julius Böhler, Munich, 1904-1940, Accession Number 2611-491, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Inventory card no. 55-26 (copy in NGA curatorial files). Dimensions on the card indicate the canvas was cut by 1926. [9] According to Kress records in NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/141.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on canvas
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