Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist
Cima da Conegliano·c. 1492/1495
Historical Context
Cima da Conegliano's Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist of c. 1492–1495 belongs to his early Venetian period, when he was establishing his reputation as the most accomplished follower of Giovanni Bellini in the genre of the half-length sacra conversazione. The pairing of Jerome — scholar and hermit, holding his attribute of the lion — with the young John the Baptist reflects the devotional priorities of the Venetian mainland where Cima worked, Franciscan and eremitic spirituality being particularly strong in the Veneto. The National Gallery of Art's panel is a fine early example of Cima's characteristic qualities: luminous Venetian colour, a serene compositional balance, and landscape backgrounds that recede with Bellinesque atmospheric precision. The work's excellent condition allows the colour relationships Cima carefully constructed to be appreciated almost as he intended.
Technical Analysis
Cima builds his figures on a carefully prepared gessoed panel with oil glazes that achieve a luminous warmth in the flesh and vivid local colour in the costumes. The background landscape is handled with atmospheric perspective — warm browns in the foreground giving way to cool blue-greys at the horizon — in the manner he learned from Bellini.
Provenance
Possibly Giovanni Castelli, Venice, until 1712.[1] Baron Carlo Marochetti [1805-1867], Paris and London, or his son, Baron Maurizio Marochetti [d. 1916], Turin; by inheritance to Elena, the daughter of the latter, wife of Carlo Corrigioni d'Orelli.[2] (Jacques Seligmann & Co., Inc., Paris and New York); sold December 1919 to Sir Edgar Vincent, later 1st viscount D'Abernon [1857-1941], Esher and Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey;[3] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York), after 1925;[4] sold 15 December 1936 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[5] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] An inventory of the collection of Giovanni Castelli after his death, dated 3 March 1712, includes "Un detto [quadro] rappresentante la Vergine con il bambino, S. Gio. Batta e S. Girolamo, del Cima, in tavola"; published in Cesare Augusto Levi, _Le collezioni veneziane d'arte e d'antichità dal secolo XIV. ai nostri giorni_, 2 vols., Venice, 1900: 2:170. Franca Zava Boccazzi, "Contributo alla ritrattistica di Nicolo Cassana," _AV_ 38 (1984): 97, 104-105, publishes an early twentieth-century transcription of a nineteenth-century list (values are given in Austrian florins) of a group of twenty-nine of the works listed in the Castelli inventory, including the above-mentioned Cima. These were apparently in the collection of an unnamed Venetian family until 1884, after which they were gradually dispersed. Since the other known works by Cima meeting this description (Museum des bildenen Künste, Leipzig; private collection, Milan; as well as a replica of the former in the Museo del Castelvecchio, Verona) can all be accounted for elsewhere before 1884 (Peter Humfrey, _Cima da Conegliano_, Cambridge, 1983: 105, 126, 192), it is likely that the reference is to the Washington painting, which could have passed to Baron Maurizio Marochetti (see note 2) after 1884. [2] A letter (in NGA curatorial files) dated 13 May 1940 from Germain Seligmann, son of Jacques Seligmann, states that the painting was from the collection of Baron Marochetti. This has been interpreted as referring to Baron Carlo Marochetti, the well-known sculptor who lived in Paris and London and died in 1867. However, it probably refers to his son, Baron Maurizio Marochetti, of Turin, who was the Italian ambassador to Russia. (The _Catalogue of the Contents of the Studio of the late Baron (Carlo) Marochetti_, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, 7 May 1868, contains no reference to the Washington painting.) According to Fern Rusk Shapley (_Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:131 n. 5), Ellis K. Waterhouse reported that the painting was once in the Orelli collection. Baron Maurizio's daughter Elena was married to Carlo Corregioni d'Orelli. See Marco Calderini, _Carlo Marochetti_, Turin, 1928: 47, 54; Vittorio Spreti, _Enciclopedia storico-nobiliare italiana_, 9 vols., Milan, 1928-1936: 4(1931):409. The location of the Orelli collection has not been determined. [3] Germain Seligmann, in his memoir _Merchants of Art: 1880-1960_, New York, 1961: 126-127, describes his first meeting with Bernard Berenson, in 1919, at which his father, Jacques, showed the Washington painting to Berenson. He immediately pronounced it to be the work of Cima, "but added that he believed the landscape was by a lesser master, Santa Croce. With all due respect to the great expert, the name of Santa Croce just might have been mentioned to soften the price, for a few days later, Lord d'Abernon (later Ambassador to Berlin) came to purchase the painting at Mr. Berenson's suggestion, presenting just that argument for a lowering of the quoted figure." An opinion by Berenson (in NGA curatorial files), dated 3 February 1919, calls the painting "one of the most monumental, one of the grandest and noblest works of the Venetian School...among the few great achievements" of Cima, and dates it c. 1510. A letter of 8 July 1940 (in NGA curatorial files) from Duveen Brothers, Inc. to John Walker provides the information from Lord D'Abernon that the purchase was made in December 1919. [4] Adolfo Venturi, "Opere poco note di Cima da Conegliano," _L'Arte_ 29 (1926): 182-184, reprinted in Adolfo Venturi, _Studi dal vero_, Milan, 1927: 243-244, fig. 149 (1926, 182-184), gives the painting as belonging to D'Abernon when it was shown in 1925 in Berlin. Lord d'Abernon was British Ambassador to Berlin 1920-1926. [5] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.
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