Workshop of PALMA VECCHIO (circa 1480-1528)

THE PROPERTY OF A MIDWEST INSTITUTION

Details

Workshop of PALMA VECCHIO (circa 1480-1528)

The Sacrifice of Noah; and The Drunkenness of Noah

oil on canvas
26 x 59 7/8in. (66 x 152.2cm.) and 26¼ x 59¾in. (66.6 x 151.8cm.) Two (2)

Provenance

William E. Gladstone (1809-1898), four time Prime Minister of Great Britain; sale, Christie's, London, June 23, 1875, lot 679, as Giorgione
with Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London
D. Bromilow; and by descent to N.G. Bromilow, until 1924
with Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London until 1926 when given to the museum

Literature

W. Heil, Some Recently Acquired Pictures of the Venetian School, Bulletin of The Detroit Institute of Arts, VIII, Feb. 1927, pp. 50-51, as Palma Vecchio
Detroit Institute of Arts, Catalogue of Paintings, 1930, nos. 162-163, as Palma Vecchio
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, 1932, p. 409, as studio of Palma Vecchio
G. Gombosi in Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, etc.,, 26, 1932, p. 174, as Girolamo da Santacroce
A. Spahn, Palma Vecchio, 1932, pp. 174-75
G. Gombosi in Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, etc.,, 29, 1935, p. 423, as Girolamo da Santacroce
B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, 1936, p. 351, as studio of Palma Vecchio
G. Gombasi, Palma Vecchio, Des Meisters Gemälde und Zeichnungen, 1937, p. 139, illustrated p. 126, Gombosi assumes a new artist, called the Noah Master from these two panels
Detroit Institute of Arts, Catalogue of Paintings, 1944, p. 99, as Palma Vecchio
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, I, 1957, p. 123, as studio of Palma Vecchio
Detroit Institute of Arts, Paintings Checklist, 1965, p. 83, as Palma Vecchio
G. Mariacher, Palma Il Vecchio, 1968, p. 82, nos. 65-66, listed under 'Uncertain works or works with collaboration'
B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, 1972, p. 155, as Palma Vecchio
G. Mariacher, I Pittori bergamaschi, Il Cinquecento I, 1980, p. 219, no. 84, listed under works of uncertain attribution
M. Levi d'Ancona, The Garden of the Renaissance, Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting, 1979, p. 166

Exhibited

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Coe College, Centennial Exhibition, 1952, no. 1
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Six Centuries of Landscape, 1952, no. 13
Winnipeg, Winnipeg Art Gallery Association, Oct.-Nov., 1953; Vancouver, Vancouver Art Gallery, Nov.-Dec., 1953, Great Masters of the Italian Renaissance 1400-1600, no. 28 (The Drunkenness of Noah)
Hamilton, Ontario, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Old Masters, 1968, no. 35
Albion, Michigan, Albion College, 1959

Lot Essay

At the time of the Gladstone sale of 1875 both paintings were ascribed to Giorgione but were subsequently given to Palma Vecchio by von Hadeln (Heil, loc. cit.). Von Hadeln apparently changed his mind and reattributed the paintings to Cariani as whose works they were donated to the museum in 1926; this attribution, however, was rejected by the museum and the paintings have been listed as Palma until the present.

Only Fredericksen and Zeri (loc. cit.) have accepted the attribution to Palma without qualification. Berenson (loc.cit., 1936), who described the works as cassoni, maintained an attribution to the studio of Palma. Gombosi (loc. cit., 1932 and loc. cit., 1935) first suggested Girolamo da Santacroce but later changed his mind (loc. cit., 1937) and ascribed the works to the circle of Bonifazio Veronese or the early Jacopo Bassano. Spahn (loc. cit.) and Mariacher (loc. cit.) have both rejected the attribution to Palma Vecchio without suggesting an alternative