Portrait of Giambattista Memmo
Portrait of Giambattista Memmo
- Artist
- Vincenzo Catena
- Artist Dates
- c. 1470-1531
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Portrait of Giambattista Memmo
- Date
- c. 1510
- Medium
- tempera on panel
- Dimensions
- 44.5 x 35.6 cm (17-1/2 x 14 in)
- K Number
- K357
- Repository
- Lowe Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 61.015.000
- Notes
Provenance
Count Robilant Mocenigo, Venice, Italy. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 10 October 1935 as Giovanni Bellini; gift to the National Gallery of Art in 1939; deaccessioned 1952 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; gift to Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, no. 61.015.000.
Catalogue Entry
Vincenzo Catena
Portrait of Giambattista Memmo
K357
Coral Gables, Fla., Joe and Emily Lowe Art Gallery, University of Florida (61.15). since 1961.(1) Wood. 18 1/4 X 14 3/4 in. (46.4 X 37.5 cm.). Fair condition; some restorations in sky and cloak and a few in the face; cleaned 1961. Although this painting has usually been attributed to Bellini, Catena too is a reasonable claimant,(2) and there is much to be said, especially, for the proposal of Palma Vecchio's name.(3) Characteristic of his early style are the distant blue mountains and the sumptuous breadth of the portrait's composition. The date must be about 1510/15, for the painting is influenced by Giorgione's softness of texture and lyrical mood. The sitter is traditionally connected with the Memmo family, but there seems to be no documentary support of this tradition. Provenance: Conte Robilant-Mocenigo, Venice. Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1935 – exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (307), 1941-52;(4) William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Mo., 1952-60.(5)
References
(1) Catalogue by F. R. Shapley, 1961, p. 58, as Bellini. (2) B. Berenson (in ms. opinion) formerly attributed K357 to Catena; but he has more recently (Italian Pictures ... Venetian School, vol. I, 1957, p. 31) listed it as a late work by Bellini, to whom G. Fiocco, R. Longhi, R. van Marle, F. M. Perkins, and A. Venturi (in ms. opinions) had attributed it. H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat (in ms. opinion) favor an attribution to Catena. (3) W. E. Suida (loc. cit. in note 5, below) suggests the possibility of Palma, and F. Heinemann (Giovanni Bellini e i belliniani, vol. I, 1962, p. 103) gives it to Bellini influenced by Palma Vecchio. (4) Preliminary Catalogue, 1941, p. 37, as Catena. (5) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1952, p. 44, as Bellini.