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Lot Essay
We are grateful to Professor Alessandro Ballarin for the attribution to Francesco Bassano, given on the basis of photographs. Professor Ballarin dates the picture to the 1580s, at the time when the artist was working in Venice by himself. Another version of the composition by Francesco, on copper measuring 17¼ x 13½ in. was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 12 December 1990, lot 24 for £27,000.
The composition derives from a sketch by Jacopo Bassano, in the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I., U.S.A., formerly in the collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., exhibited at Bassano del Grappa, Museu Civico, and Fort Worth, Texas, Kimbell Art Museum, Jacopo Bassano, 23 January-25 April 1993, no. 75. A similar composition recurs in the background of the Portrait of an old woman with a rosary in the collection of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres (see B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Venetian School, London, 1957, I, p. 21; II, fig. 1229).
The composition derives from a sketch by Jacopo Bassano, in the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I., U.S.A., formerly in the collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., exhibited at Bassano del Grappa, Museu Civico, and Fort Worth, Texas, Kimbell Art Museum, Jacopo Bassano, 23 January-25 April 1993, no. 75. A similar composition recurs in the background of the Portrait of an old woman with a rosary in the collection of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres (see B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Venetian School, London, 1957, I, p. 21; II, fig. 1229).