Descent from the Cross

?marquis de Talleyrand; [A. Contini, Rome, until 1928; sold for $37,500 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1928–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 9; 1943, no. 8)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Bache Collection," June 16–September 30, 1943, no. 8.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painting in Renaissance Siena: 1420–1500," December 20, 1988–March 19, 1989, no. 55.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill., dates it about 1480; as formerly in the collection of the marquis de Talleyrand.

Walter Heil. "The Jules Bache Collection." Art News 27 (April 27, 1929), p. 3, erroneously lists it as by Andrea Mantegna.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 256.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 220.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 9, ill.

"Bache Donates His Art to Public for a Museum: Home at 814 Fifth Ave. to House $20,000,000 Collection; Donor Sails Before Gift Is Revealed." New York Herald Tribune (April 29, 1937), p. 13.

"J. S. Bache Gives His Art Collection and 5th Avenue Residence to State." New York Times (April 29, 1937), p. 14.

"Bache Art Works on Display Today: Former Residence on 5th Ave. Joins Front Rank of Small but Great Museums." New York Times (November 16, 1937), p. 25.

A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 8, ill.

Mirella Levi d'Ancona. The Wildenstein Collection of Illuminations: The Lombard School. Florence, 1970, p. 70.

Keith Christiansen in Painting in Renaissance Siena: 1420–1500. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1988, pp. 289–90, no. 55, ill., relates it to a breviary of about 1474–75 made for the hospital of Santa Nuova, Florence (now Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; Codex 68), and to three fragments in the Lewis Collection (Free Library of Philadelphia), which, along with this work, might have been removed from the lost missal decorated by Girolamo in 1475–76 for Lucrezia de' Medici.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 70, ill. p. 69.

Kurt Barstow. Letter to Andrew Caputo. [2002], suggests that it may be cut from the same manuscript as a miniature depicting the Pentecost (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Ms. 55); dates the two works to the 1460s, while Girolamo was in Mantua, and relates them to the work of Mantegna.