The Virgin Reading
Vittore Carpaccio·c. 1505
Historical Context
Vittore Carpaccio's The Virgin Reading from around 1505 depicts the Virgin Mary absorbed in a book, a subject that reflected humanist culture's emphasis on learning and the growing importance of the printed word in Renaissance Venice. Carpaccio was Venice's greatest narrative painter, best known for his elaborate cycle paintings for the city's confraternal institutions, but also produced intimate devotional works of quiet contemplation like this panel.
Technical Analysis
Carpaccio's oil on panel, transferred to canvas, demonstrates his warm Venetian palette and careful attention to the play of light across the Virgin's features and the pages of her book. The intimate scale and contemplative mood distinguish this work from his larger narrative paintings.
Provenance
Said to have been acquired in Italy by "the travelling Earl of Exeter," John Cecil, 5th earl of Exeter [d. 1700], Burghley House, Northamptonshire, between 1690 and 1700;[1] by inheritance, probably to his son, John Cecil, 6th earl of Exeter [1674-1721], Burghley House; by inheritance, probably to his son, John Cecil, 7th Earl of Exeter [d. 1722], Burghley House; by inheritance, probably to his brother, Brownlow Cecil, 8th earl of Exeter [d. 1754], Burghley House; by inheritance, probably to his son, Brownlow Cecil, 9th earl of Exeter [1725-1793], Burghley House; by inheritance, probably to his nephew, Henry Cecil, 1st marquess [1801] of Exeter [1754-1804], Burghley House;[2] by inheritance to his son, Brownlow Cecil, 2nd marquess of Exeter [1795-1867], Burghley House; by inheritance to his son, William Alleyne Cecil, 3rd marquess of Exeter [1825-1895], Burghley House; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 June 1888, no. 297, as by Cima da Conegliano); Robert Henry [1850-1929] and Evelyn Holford [1856-1943] Benson, London and Buckhurst Park, Sussex; purchased 1927 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold March 1937 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] According to Tancred Borenius, _Catalogue of Italian Pictures...Collected by Robert and Evelyn Benson_, London, 1914: 151, no. 76. [2] In a letter of 12 November 1984 to Suzannah Fabing, Carol Dowd of the Getty Provenance Index provides references, the earliest from 1797, to a painting described as a "half-length of the Virgin Reading by Garofalo" that is probably the same as NGA 1939.1.354: _A History or Description...of Burghley House, the Seat of the Right Honorable the Earl of Exeter_, 1797: 71-72; Thomas Blore, _A Guide to Burghley House, Northamptonshire, the seat of the Marquis of Exeter containing a catalogue of all the paintings, antiquities, etc. with biographical notices of the artists_, 1815: 94; John P. Neale, _Views of The Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland_, 6 vols., London, 1820: 3:unpaginated, entry for Burghley House, Northamptonshire. All the references place the painting in Burghley House. [3] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of twenty-four paintings, including NGA 1939.1.354, is dated 9 March 1937; the provenance is given as "Benson Collection" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2354.
