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Lot Essay
Pignatti dates this picture to the early 1580s, and compares it in style to the The Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, which dates from 1580-81 (T. Pignatti and T. Crombie, op. cit, p. 144, fig. 5). Characteristic of both pictures are the soft brushwork and harmonious colours. Pignatti also points out that the posture of Saint Joseph seen from behind in the present picture is similar to that of the Saint in another Rest on the Flight into Egypt (private collection) that can also be dated to the early 1580s (ibid., p. 144, fig. 8, see also R. Rearick in the catalogue of the exhibition The Art of Paolo Veronese, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 13 November 1988-20 February 1989, p. 98, no. 49, illustrated). The latter picture shows a similarly vivid treatment of the foliage of the trees, as, for example, the leaves of the palm tree under which the Virgin and Child are sitting. These facts and the soft, refined rendering of the still life in the centre, support Pignatti's view that a more stylized version (formerly in the collection of Senator Borletti in Milan) was executed a few years after the present painting, towards the end of the painter's life (T. Pignatti and T. Crombie, op. cit., p. 144, fig. 3). A third version which was probably produced in Veronese's studio and which Pignatti believes to be possibly by Carletto Caliari, is in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow (ibid., p. 144, fig. 7, see also T. Pignatti and F. Pedrocco, Veronese, Milan, 1995, II, p. 480, no. 381, illustrated).
The subject of this picture, The Rest on the Return from Egypt, is similar to that of The Rest on the Flight into Egypt but is distinguished from it by the age of the Child, who is now no longer an infant but a small boy. Two ministering angels supply the Holy Family with fruit, while Joseph pours wine. The bread on a white cloth covering a stone (?) ledge in the centre suggests an altar and is clearly a reference to the Holy Sacrament and the Passion of Christ.
Before the rediscovery of this picture, Paolo Ticozzi had argued that the engraving (in reverse) by Brebiette (1598-c. 1650) was drawn from the version in the Borletti Collection (Immagini dal Veronese. Incisioni dal Sec. XVI al XIX, Rome, 1978-79, no. 19). Yet there are various differences between that version and the print. For example: in the Borletti picture the half-eaten bread roll is placed in front of the whole roll; in the engraving, it is behind it; the serpentine fold in Saint Joseph's cloak evident in the print is not visible in the painting and the foliage of the tree behind the Saint is much fuller in the print. A comparison between the present picture and the print does not show these discrepancies and it is therefore plausible that the Brebiette engraved the print after this picture rather than the other version. Crombie reproduces an edition of the print owned and retouched by the great eighteenth-century French connoisseur Mariette, who recorded that the picture was in the collection of the marquis de la Vrillière (loc. cit.; T. Pignatti and T. Crombie, op. cit., p. 145). As Crombie points out, further circumstantial evidence in favour of the French provenance is provided by the fact that the present picture is still in its original early eighteenth-century carved French frame (loc. cit.). Louis Phelypeaux, Comte de Saint-Florentin, Marquis de la Vrillière (1705-1777, created Duc in 1770), was a close confidant of Louis XV, and having helped turn the King against the duc de Choiseul, in 1770 he briefly took over the latter's post in the ministère des affaires étrangères, before handing it over to his nephew a year later. His magnificent Parisian hôtel particulier, built in 1767, later served as residence of Talleyrand, and is today the Banque de France. The present picture was hung in the famous gallery, alongside pictures by other reknown Italian artists such as Guido Reni.
Although it is not certain when the picture entered the famous collection of the Earls of Suffolk and Berkshire at Charlton Park, it is believed to have been acquired circa 1798 by the 15th Earl, at the same time as he purchased The Holy Family in the Carpenter's Shop by a follower of the Carracci and other items from the Orleans Collection. In the Charlton Park manuscript inventory, it is catalogued under no. 22 as 'A Return from Egypt or Riposo by Lorenzo Lotto', but Dr. Waagen, who saw it on his visit to the House, suggested an attribution to Paolo Veronese 'it is in his heavy, reddish tones' (loc. cit.). A substantial part of the Suffolk collection is now in the Ranger's House, Blackheath (English Heritage).
The subject of this picture, The Rest on the Return from Egypt, is similar to that of The Rest on the Flight into Egypt but is distinguished from it by the age of the Child, who is now no longer an infant but a small boy. Two ministering angels supply the Holy Family with fruit, while Joseph pours wine. The bread on a white cloth covering a stone (?) ledge in the centre suggests an altar and is clearly a reference to the Holy Sacrament and the Passion of Christ.
Before the rediscovery of this picture, Paolo Ticozzi had argued that the engraving (in reverse) by Brebiette (1598-c. 1650) was drawn from the version in the Borletti Collection (Immagini dal Veronese. Incisioni dal Sec. XVI al XIX, Rome, 1978-79, no. 19). Yet there are various differences between that version and the print. For example: in the Borletti picture the half-eaten bread roll is placed in front of the whole roll; in the engraving, it is behind it; the serpentine fold in Saint Joseph's cloak evident in the print is not visible in the painting and the foliage of the tree behind the Saint is much fuller in the print. A comparison between the present picture and the print does not show these discrepancies and it is therefore plausible that the Brebiette engraved the print after this picture rather than the other version. Crombie reproduces an edition of the print owned and retouched by the great eighteenth-century French connoisseur Mariette, who recorded that the picture was in the collection of the marquis de la Vrillière (loc. cit.; T. Pignatti and T. Crombie, op. cit., p. 145). As Crombie points out, further circumstantial evidence in favour of the French provenance is provided by the fact that the present picture is still in its original early eighteenth-century carved French frame (loc. cit.). Louis Phelypeaux, Comte de Saint-Florentin, Marquis de la Vrillière (1705-1777, created Duc in 1770), was a close confidant of Louis XV, and having helped turn the King against the duc de Choiseul, in 1770 he briefly took over the latter's post in the ministère des affaires étrangères, before handing it over to his nephew a year later. His magnificent Parisian hôtel particulier, built in 1767, later served as residence of Talleyrand, and is today the Banque de France. The present picture was hung in the famous gallery, alongside pictures by other reknown Italian artists such as Guido Reni.
Although it is not certain when the picture entered the famous collection of the Earls of Suffolk and Berkshire at Charlton Park, it is believed to have been acquired circa 1798 by the 15th Earl, at the same time as he purchased The Holy Family in the Carpenter's Shop by a follower of the Carracci and other items from the Orleans Collection. In the Charlton Park manuscript inventory, it is catalogued under no. 22 as 'A Return from Egypt or Riposo by Lorenzo Lotto', but Dr. Waagen, who saw it on his visit to the House, suggested an attribution to Paolo Veronese 'it is in his heavy, reddish tones' (loc. cit.). A substantial part of the Suffolk collection is now in the Ranger's House, Blackheath (English Heritage).