Attributed to Jacopo de Antonio de Negreto, called Palma Vecchio (Bergamo c. 1480-1528 Venice)

Christ and the Woman of Samaria

Details

Attributed to Jacopo de Antonio de Negreto, called Palma Vecchio (Bergamo c. 1480-1528 Venice)
Christ and the Woman of Samaria
oil on panel, unframed
40½ x 54¾ in. (99.8 x 139 cm.)

Provenance

William Graham; (+) Christie's, London, 2 April 1886, lot 451, as Venetian School (38 gns. to Murray).
Charles Butler, 3 Connaught Place, London; (+) Christie's, London, 25 May 1911, lot 14, as Vincenzo Catena (200 gns. to Courran).

Literature

S. Reinach, Répertoire de peintures, I, 1905, p. 384, as Altobello Melone.
B. Berenson, The Study and Criticism of Italian Art, III, London/New York, 1916, p. 256, as Palma il Vecchio and Catena.
R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian School of Painting, XVII, The Hague, 1936, p. 400, as Palma il Vecchio, finished by Catena.
G. Robertson, Vincenzo Catena, Edinburgh, 1954, pp. 35, 83, cat. app. IV, no. 16, no attribution.
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, London, 1957, no. 910, illustrated, as Palma Vecchio, finished by Catena.
G. Mariacher, Palma il Vecchio, Milan, 1968, p. 101, no attribution.
P. Rylands, Palma il Vecchio. L'opera completa, Milan, 1988, p. 284, no. A42, illustrated, as Attributed to Palma il Vecchio (?).

Exhibited

London, New Gallery, 1894-95, no. 154, as Altobello Melone.

Lot Essay

The attribution to Palma il Vecchio was first suggested by Berenson in 1916 (loc. cit.). However, he believed that Christ and the Samarian were by Palma and that Vincenzo Catena completed the picture. Robertson, and more recently Rylands in his monograph on Palma il Vecchio, exclude the possibility of Catena having finished the painting. Rylands (loc. cit.), on the basis of a photograph, catalogues the picture therefore as 'attributed to Palma il Vecchio'.

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