The Hunt of the Caledonian Boar
The Hunt of the Caledonian Boar
- Artist
- Battista Dossi
- Artist Dates
- c. 1490-1548
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- The Hunt of the Caledonian Boar
- Date
- c. 1520
- Medium
- oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 49.2 x 78.8 cm (19-3/8 x 31 in)
- K Number
- K1749
- Repository
- El Paso Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1961.1.22
- Notes
Provenance
(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, [1878-1955], Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 1 July 1950 ; gift to El Paso Museum of Art in 1961, no.1961.1.22.
Catalogue Entry
Battista Dossi
The Hunt of the Caledonian Boar
K1749
El Paso, Tex., El Paso Museum of Art (1961-6/19), since 1961.(1) Wood. 19 3/8 x 31 in. (49.2 x 78.8 cm.). Fair condition; blistering surface; partially cleaned 1961. Comparison with Battista Dossi's Holy Family in the Borghese, Rome, and his Nativity in the Modena Pinacoteca supports the attribution of K1749 to Battista.(2) Stylistic dependence on such a painting by his brother as K448 suggests a dating after 1520 for K1749, in which, however, the buildings and mountains in the background are somewhat more fantastic, possibly under the influence of Scorel. In the scene, taken from Ovid,(3) swift-footed Atalanta has wounded the monstrous boar, braggart Aneaeus raises his axe in vain, and Meleager plunges his spear into the boar's side and shares the glory with Atalanta. Provenance: Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1950 –exhibited: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex., 1953-58;(4) Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Okla., 1960-61, as Battista Dossi.
References
(1) Catalogue by F. R. Shapley, 1961, no. 19, as Battista Dossi. (2) R. Longhi (in ms. opinion, 1950) attributes K1749 to Battista, in the period of Dosso's K448. A Mezzetti (Il Dosso e Battista ferraresi, 1965, pp. 107 f.) gives it to Battista and school, c. 1535. (3) Ovid, Metamorphoses viii, 267 ff. (4) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1953, no. 14, as Battista Dossi.