Madonna and Child with Saints

marchese Girolamo Manfrin, Venice (until d. 1801); his son, marchese Pietro Manfrin, Venice (1801–d. 1833); his sister, marchesa Giulia Angela Giovanna Manfrin, Venice (1833–d. 1849); her children, marchese Antonio Plattis, Padua, and marchesa Bortolina Plattis-Sardegna (from 1849); Alexander Barker, London (?until 1871); William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley, London (possibly by 1868, definitely by 1871–d. 1885; his estate, 1885–92; his estate sale, Christie's, London, June 25, 1892, no. 73, as by Palma Vecchio, for £682.10.0 to Agnew); [Agnew, London, 1892]; Sir Robert James Loyd-Lindsay, Baron Wantage, Lockinge House, Wantage, Berkshire (1892–d. 1901); his widow, Harriet Sarah, Lady Wantage, Lockinge House (1901–d. 1920; cat., 1905, no. 173, as by Palma Vecchio); her cousin, Arthur Thomas Loyd, Lockinge House (1920–d. 1944; cat., 1928, no. 173, as possibly by Bernardino Licinio; his estate sale, Sotheby's, London, November 28, 1945, no. 95, as by Palma Vecchio); Paul Hatvany (until 1956; sale, Sotheby's, London, July 4, 1956, no. 36, as by Palma Vecchio, for £900 to Patch); private collection (until 1984; sale, Christie's, New York, January 18, 1984, no. 136, as by Bonifazio Veronese, for $28,600 to Weisl); Mr. and Mrs. Edwin L. Weisl Jr., New York (1984–95)

Leeds Art Gallery. "National Exhibition of Works of Art," 1868, no. 2916 (as "The Holy Family, with Saints," by Palma Vecchio, lent by the Earl Dudley, possibly this work).

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1871, no. 329 (as "A Holy Family, with St. Catherine and Saints," by Palma Vecchio, lent by the Earl of Dudley).

J[oseph]. A[rcher]. Crowe and G[iovanni]. B[attista]. Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. London, 1871, vol. 2, p. 486, as in the Barker collection, London; attribute it to an imitator of Palma, possibly Bernardino Licinio or Cariani; note that it was once in the Manfrini palace, Venice.

A[lfred]. G[eorge]. Temple et al. A Catalogue of Pictures Forming the Collection of Lord and Lady Wantage. London, 1905, pp. vii, 119, no. 173, ill. opp. p. 119 (framed) and between pp. 118 and 119 (detail), as at Lockinge House; attribute it to Palma Vecchio, but suggest that it may have been finished by another artist, possibly Cariani; state that it was purchased at the Dudley sale in 1892.

Victoria Manners. "Lady Wantage's Collection of Pictures: Part IV." Connoisseur 28 (October 1910), pp. 76, 78, ill. p. 75, attributes it to Palma Vecchio "or one of his school".

Tancred Borenius, ed. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century.. By J[oseph]. A[rcher]. Crowe and G[iovanni]. B[attista]. Cavalcaselle. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1871]. London, 1912, vol. 3, p. 380 n. 4, notes that it is in the collection of Lady Wantage, Lockinge House.

J[oseph]. A[rcher]. Crowe and G[iovanni]. B[attista]. Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. Ed. Tancred Borenius. 2nd ed. [1st ed 1871]. London, 1912, vol. 3, pp. 380–81.

Algernon Graves. Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century. Vol. 2, H to Reme. London, 1921, p. 309, lists Agnew as the buyer at the Dudley sale in 1892.

A[rthur]. T[homas]. L[oyd]. Guide to the Pictures at Lockinge House. Wantage, 1928, p. 37, no. 173, as possibly by Bernardino Licinio.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 284, lists it as by Bernardino Licinio, in the collection of A. Thomas Loyd, Lockinge House, Wantage.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 244.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School. London, 1957, vol. 1, p. 97, as formerly in the Wantage collection.

Luisa Vertova. "Bernardino Licinio." I pittori bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo: il Cinquecento. Bergamo, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 421, 463, no. 54, ill., attributes it to Licinio.

Important Paintings by Old Masters. Christie's, New York. January 18, 1984, p. 105, no. 136, ill. (color), as by Bonifazio Veronese, with a note that the attribution is by Roger Rearick.

Andrea Bayer. "North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Venice and the Veneto." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 63 (Summer 2005), p. 38, ill. (color).

The frame is from the Lombardy region and dates to about 1620 (see figs. 1–4 above). This simple giltwood cassetta frame is made of poplar and secured with lap joints at its corners. The sight edge molding includes an ogee within a bead resting on a step. The flat frieze extends outward before a small ogee which rises to a hollow before a step and quarter round at the top edge. Never resized, the surface has an early burnished overgilding. This design is based on the ebonized cassetta frames on Netherlandish paintings such as the frame on Hendrik van Steenwijck II’s Interior of Antwerp Cathedral (1586; Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan).

Timothy Newbery with Cynthia Moyer 2020; further information on this frame can be found in the Department of European Paintings files

The saints accompanying the Madonna and Child are, left to right: Elizabeth, the infant John the Baptist, Zacharias, Joseph, and Catherine of Alexandria.