The Annunciation and the Journey to Bethlehem
The Annunciation and the Journey to Bethlehem
- Artist
- Guidoccio Cozzarelli
- Artist Dates
- 1450-1516/1517
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- The Annunciation and the Journey to Bethlehem
- Date
- c. 1480-90
- Medium
- tempera on panel
- Dimensions
- 68 x 54 cm (26-3/4 x 21-1/4 in)
- K Number
- K1286
- Repository
- Lowe Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 61.022.000
- Notes
Provenance
Dr. Friedrich Lippmann [1838-1903], Berlin; (sale, Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, 26 November 1912, no. 35 as Domenico Cozzarelli); (F. Kleinberger Galleries, Paris and New York); sold 1922 to (Robert Langton Douglas [1864-1951], London) until at least 1928. [1] London art market. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 1 September 1939; gift 1943 to the National Gallery of Art; deaccessioned in 1952 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; gift to Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, no. 61.022.000. [1] Kleinberger Gallery stock card no. 15498, Department of European Paintings, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lent, presumably for sale, by Douglas to Antiques and Works of Art, Olympia, London,19 July - 1 August 1928, no. X-21.
Catalogue Entry
Guidoccio Cozzarelli
The Annunciation and the Journey to Bethlehem
K1286
Coral Gables, Fla., Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami (61.22), since 1961.(1) Wood. 26 3/4 x 21 1/4 in. (68 x 54 cm.). Good condition. The stylized dolphin-and-vase border at the bottom is unusual in a panel painting but would be normal in a miniature of the period. Close parallels are offered in some of Cozzarelli's book illuminations, of 1480-81, now in the Piccolomini Library, Siena.(2) K1286 was probably painted about the same time. The fact that it is a fragment of a larger painting may also help explain some of the decorative elements: the pilaster and the corner of an entablature at the left may have been part of a now-missing Madonna's throne. The two scenes have been variously interpreted;(3) for Cozzarelli was inclined to be free and informal in matters of iconography. The palm branch carried by the angel in the scene at the right is generally used to indicate that the Virgin's death is being announced. However, Dante(4) describes Gabriel with a palm branch as he comes to announce to the Virgin that she is to be the mother of Christ, and the palm is found in rare paintings of this scene – one by Fra Angelico, for instance. This is likely the subject shown at the right in K1286; and the scene at the left is probably the Departure of the Virgin and Joseph for Bethlehem, not the Flight into Egypt, which would call for the inclusion of the Christ Child. Provenance: Dr. Friedrich Lippmann, Berlin (sold, Rudolph Lepke's, Berlin, Nov. 26-27, 1912; catalogue by M. J. Friedlander, no. 35, as Domenico Cozzarelli; bought by Kleinberger's). R. L. Douglas, London (purchased, 1922) –exhibited: 'Antiques and Works of Art,' Olympia, London, July 19-Aug. 1, 1928, no. X-21, as Guidoccio Cozzarelli. London Market. Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1939 –exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (507),1941-57.(5)
References
(1) Catalogue by F. R. Shapley, 1961, p. 24, as Cozzarelli. (2) Some of these illuminations are reproduced by R. van Marle, Italian Schools of Painting, vol. XVI, 1937, figs. 208, 209. K1286 has been attributed to Cozzarelli by B. Berenson, G. Fiocco, R. Longhi, W. E. Suida, A. Venturi (in ms. opinions), T. Borenius (in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, vol. v, 1914, p. 186), I. Vavasour Elder (in Rassegna d'Arte Senese, La Balzana, vol. I, 1927, p. 116), R. van Marle (op. cit., p. 378), J. Pope-Hennessy (Sienese Quattrocento Painting, 1947, pp. 18, 30), and E. Carli (Sienese Painting, 1956, p. 69). (3) Van Marle (op. cit., p. 378) interprets the scenes as the Announcement to the Virgin of Her Death and the Journey to Bethlehem. Pope-Hennessy (loc. cit.) labels the scenes as the Annunciation and the Flight into Egypt. This is the interpretation offered also by Borenius (loc. cit.) and E. Carli (loc. cit.). (4) Dante, Il Paradiso, XXXII, 112-114. (5) Preliminary Catalogue, 1941, p. 48, as Cozzarelli.