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Lot Essay
After the original of 1538 in the Uffizi, Florence.
Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon, was proclaimed King of Spain in 1808 and during his reign appropriated a number of works from, amongst others, the Spanish royal collection. After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 Joseph fled to taking with him nearly two hundred paintings that were to enhance his property at Point Breeze on the Delaware - the original building at which was partly destroyed by fire in 1820 and replaced with a classical mansion. To provide an income, he gradually sold off the collection in New York - for instance Titian's Tarquin and Lucretia (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum) and a Murillo Virgin (Houston, Museum of Fine Arts) - and in London. Family tradition holds that Campbell was a friend of Bonaparte, and that, following Point Breeze's rebuilding, Joseph gave a group of pictures for which he no longer had room to Campbell, some of which were put up for auction by the latter at Christie's in 1831. The present work was not included in the 1831 sale, but is recorded as having been in Joseph's collection.
The fact that an untraced copy was in the collection of Elizabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain, suggests that the two may be identical, and that this was one of the paintings taken by Joseph from the Royal collection. The original was in the Farnese collection until 1631, when it was brought to Florence by Vittoria della Rovere on her engagement to Ferdinando II dei Medici, and this may well have been a copy from the Farnese collection, which Elizabeth brought with her to Spain.
Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon, was proclaimed King of Spain in 1808 and during his reign appropriated a number of works from, amongst others, the Spanish royal collection. After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 Joseph fled to taking with him nearly two hundred paintings that were to enhance his property at Point Breeze on the Delaware - the original building at which was partly destroyed by fire in 1820 and replaced with a classical mansion. To provide an income, he gradually sold off the collection in New York - for instance Titian's Tarquin and Lucretia (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum) and a Murillo Virgin (Houston, Museum of Fine Arts) - and in London. Family tradition holds that Campbell was a friend of Bonaparte, and that, following Point Breeze's rebuilding, Joseph gave a group of pictures for which he no longer had room to Campbell, some of which were put up for auction by the latter at Christie's in 1831. The present work was not included in the 1831 sale, but is recorded as having been in Joseph's collection.
The fact that an untraced copy was in the collection of Elizabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain, suggests that the two may be identical, and that this was one of the paintings taken by Joseph from the Royal collection. The original was in the Farnese collection until 1631, when it was brought to Florence by Vittoria della Rovere on her engagement to Ferdinando II dei Medici, and this may well have been a copy from the Farnese collection, which Elizabeth brought with her to Spain.