Paris Bordone

Gaspare Craglietto (1772-1838), Ca' di Dio, Venice;

Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-1862), Boston;

Thence by descent to his son, Thomas Cary Felton (1855-1898), Boston;

Robert L. Manning and Bertina Suida-Manning, Forest Hills, New York, by 1957;

From whom acquired by Eugene Thaw (1927-2018), New York, by 2003;

Thence acquired by the present collectors.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Winter 1882-1883, no. 254 (lent by T.C. Felton);

New York, Finch College Museum of Art, A Loan Exhibition of Venetian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century, 30 October - 15 December 1963, no. 16 (lent from a private collection);

Eugene, Oregon, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, April 2019 - Nov 2019 (lent by the Jill and Lowell Teschmacher Charitable Trust).

Quadreria di Gaspare Craglietto, Venice 1838, p. 4, cat. no. 7;

Catalogue of Works of Art Exhibited, Part II: Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, and Decorative Art, exhibition catalogue, Boston 1882, p. 19, cat. no. 254;

Catalogue of Works of Art Exhibited, Part II: Paintings, Drawings, Engravings, and Decorative Art (second edition), exhibition catalogue, Boston 1883, p. 19, cat. no. 254;

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaisance, Venetian School, London 1957, vol. I, p. 47;

R.L. Manning, A Loan Exhibition of Venetian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century, exhibition catalogue, New York 1963, n.p., cat. no. 16, reproduced;

G. Canova, Paris Bordon, Venice 1964, p. 85, reproduced fig. 122;

A. Jackson, Not without Honour: Paris Bordon in Sixteenth-Century Venice and Beyond, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Aberdeen 2005, p. 93, reproduced fig. 3.4;

A. Donati, in Tiziano, Bordon e gli Acquaviva d'Aragona: pittori veneziani in Puglia e fuoriusciti napoletani in Francia, exhibition catalogue, N.B. Pugliese, A. Donati, and L. Puppi (eds.), Foggia 2012, pp. 195, 200, reproduced fig. 49;

A. Donati, Paris Bordone: catalogo ragionato, Soncino 2014, pp. 313-315, cat. no. 90, reproduced.

"The brilliance of the colors and the vivid, eloquent lifelike heads, especially in the singular figure of Anthony Abbot, reveal the talent of Bordone and the reasons why he was described as among the greatest followers of Titian."

-Quadreria di Gaspare Craglietto, Venice 1838, p. 4.

Dateable to circa 1555–1560, this elegant Sacra Conversazione is a characteristic work of Paris Bordone's early maturity, a period marked by his exploration of Mannerist idioms. The Virgin is seated in before a green hanging, her monumental yet tender presence anchoring the scene as the Christ Child climbs onto a closed book—an allusion to the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy at the Incarnation. Saint Francis, turning inward in devout contemplation, reveals the wound in his chest, while Saint Anthony Abbot is rendered with striking individuality, his weathered features singled out with vivid psychological presence. The figure of Saint Francis closely recalls the saint in Bordone’s signed Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and Francis in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (inv. no. 39.12.1) , underscoring the artist’s reuse and refinement of favored types during this period.

The present painting belongs to a closely related group of five works from the same years, including the Holy Family with Saint Catherine in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan; the Holy Family with Saint Catherine in the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest; the Madonna and Child with Saints Peter, Mary Magdalene and Catherine (last recorded on the art market in 1978); and the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, formerly in the Thomas J. Bryan Collection at the Historical Society in New York. All share a luminous palette, absence of a middle ground, and close alignment of the figures.

The present work was recorded--and praised--in the 1838 inventory of Gaspare Craglietto (1772-1838), a venerable Venetian naval officer and passionate art collector.¹ Shortly thereafter, it entered the collection of Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-1862), president of Harvard University and regent of the Smithsonian Institution. This painting's distinguished provenance continued into the twentieth century, when it formed part of the Suida-Manning collection.

¹ Quadreria di Gaspare Craglietto, Venice 1838, p. 4, cat. no. 7: "La Vergine col figlio e santi. Siede Maria alia destra del quadro guardando il suo Diletto. Egli monta sovra un chiuso libro ed ha la testa e le mani rivolte alia Genitrice. Quel volume serrato, dice che al venire Gesu in terra si compierono le profezie de 1 Veggenti. Francesco guarda I'infante celeste, mostrando I'aperta piaga del suo petto. Fa campo a Maria un verde panno, e alia manca I'occhio trascorre per largo prato fiorito. - II fulgor delle tinte, e la verita viva e parlante nelle teste, e piu in quella singolarissima di Antonio abate, palesano la valentia del Bordone per la quale fu ascritto fra i migliori seguaci del gran Cadorino."