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Lot Essay
In 1510, the great patron of the arts Isabella d’Este (1479-1539), the Marchioness of Mantua, sent Anne of Brittany (1477-1514), the Queen of France, a Sacra Famiglia by Lorenzo Costa in an attempt to win support for her husband’s cause at the French court, after Francesco Gonzaga had been taken prisoner by Venetian forces. A painting of this description in The Toledo Museum of Arts (inv. no. 1965.174), which was first recorded with certainty in the Barberini collections in the seventeenth century, was identified with this gift by Adolfo Venturi in 1914 and this identification has been upheld by several scholars, although it has more recently been cautiously reassessed (C. Brown, ‘Una imagine di Nostra Donna, Lorenzo Costa’s Holy Family for Ann of Brittany’, in Cultura figurative ferraese fra XV e XVI secolo, Venice, 1981, doc 1-20). The Toledo picture is signed and has been dated by some scholars to around 1506-07, although Negro and Roio have since proposed a dating shortly after Costa’s Adoration of the Magi (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) which he completed in 1499 (loc. cit.). This chronology could support a hypothesis suggested by Anne of Brittany, mentioned in a letter by Jacopo d’Atri on 6 June 1510, that the Holy Family was based on likenesses of Isabelle d’Este, her husband Francesco Gonzago and their son Federico, who was born in May 1500.
The present painting was first brought to the attention of scholars when it was published by Bernard Berenson in 1907 as a work by Lorenzo Costa. The painting was then in the collection of the Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Berenson subsequently revised his opinion and since then scholarly debate has centred on the extent of Costa’s involvement; in 1987 Andre Ugolini credited him with the work in full, whilst in their 2001 monograph on the artist Negro and Roio argued that the fine quality of the face of Saint Joseph and the background landscape were evidence of Costa’s hand, but that other parts of the painting may have been finished in his studio.
The relationship between the Carnegie and Toledo versions is unclear, although we can be fairly certain that the former derives in some way from the latter. The figures in the two paintings are mirrored but they differ in scale. In the Carnegie picture the Holy Family has been set between two stone parapets and separated from their rural setting, which is wholly original in Costa’s oeuvre and centers on a view of lake before distant mountains.
The present painting was first brought to the attention of scholars when it was published by Bernard Berenson in 1907 as a work by Lorenzo Costa. The painting was then in the collection of the Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Berenson subsequently revised his opinion and since then scholarly debate has centred on the extent of Costa’s involvement; in 1987 Andre Ugolini credited him with the work in full, whilst in their 2001 monograph on the artist Negro and Roio argued that the fine quality of the face of Saint Joseph and the background landscape were evidence of Costa’s hand, but that other parts of the painting may have been finished in his studio.
The relationship between the Carnegie and Toledo versions is unclear, although we can be fairly certain that the former derives in some way from the latter. The figures in the two paintings are mirrored but they differ in scale. In the Carnegie picture the Holy Family has been set between two stone parapets and separated from their rural setting, which is wholly original in Costa’s oeuvre and centers on a view of lake before distant mountains.