The Annunciation
The Annunciation
- Artist
- Girolamo da Santa Croce
- Artist Dates
- 1480-1485, died 1556
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- The Annunciation
- Date
- c. 1540-50
- Medium
- oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 55.6 x 71.1 cm (21-7/8 x 28 in)
- K Number
- K1103
- Repository
- Columbia Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- CMA 1962.25
- Notes
Provenance
Contessa Ferretti, Florence. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955] Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 16 June 1937; gift to the National Gallery of Art in 1939; deaccessioned in 1952 and returned to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation; gift to Columbia Museum of Art in 1961, no. CMA 1962.25.
Catalogue Entry
Girolamo da Santa Croce
The Annunciation
K1103
Columbia, S.C., Columbia Museum of Art (62-934), since 1962.(1) Wood. 21 7/8 X 28 in. (55.6 X 71.1 cm.). Inscribed on scrolls on the two columns, the 'Pillars of Hercules,' held by angels above: PLVS VLTRA (the device of Charles V: More beyond); on the scroll held by the prophet Isaiah, upper left: ECCE VIRGO. CONCEPIET (from Isaiah 7:14); and on the Virgin's open book: SPES MEA IN DEO EST (My hope is in God). Good condition except for a very few restorations. That Girolamo da Santa Croce painted K1103 has not been doubted nor that he used a composition by Titian as model.(2) Titian's Annunciation, which was painted in 1537 and sent in the same year to Empress Isabella of Spain, has been lost and is now known only in a description by Aretino and an engraving by Caraglio.(3) The engraving, rather than the original painting, probably served as model for K1103, where only the figures of Gabriel, the Virgin, and the dove of the Holy Spirit, follow Titian closely. Most of the angels, too, are copied, but the two groups are placed farther apart, leaving space for the figure of God the Father, which was not included by Titian. This figure of God the Father is similar to the one in Santa Croce's altarpiece in the Duomo, Lucera (Foggia), dated 1555; possibly K1103 may have been painted as late as this. Also the sections at the sides have nothing to do with Titian: at the left is a copy of Raphael's Holy Family known as La Perla, now in the Prado, Madrid; no model has been identified for the two conversing religious at the right and the bas reliefs of putti and scenes from Genesis. X-ray indicates that Santa Croce had also contemplated other variations: the windows in the background were carried lower, their arched tops were not concealed, and through them was a view of what seems to have been the Stigmatization of St. Francis; at the left, instead of Raphael's Holy Family, there was a Nativity. Finally, there was published a few years ago another painted version, apparently by Santa Croce, of K1103.(4) That version (present whereabouts unknown, but formerly in the Achillito Chiesa Collection, Milan) shows other supplements to Titian's composition. Provenance: Contessa Ferretti, Florence. Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1937 – exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (469), 1941-51;(5) Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1952-60;(6) after entering the Columbia Museum: 'Religion in Painting,' Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Ark., Dec. 7, 1963-Jan. 30, 1964, no. 10 of catalogue, as Santa Croce.
References
(1) Catalogue by A. Contini Bonacossi, 1962, pp. 70 f, as Girolamo da Santa Croce. (2) That K1103 is by Santa Croce and based on Titian has been recognized by G. Fiocco, R. Longhi, F. M. Perkins, A. Venturi (in ms. opinions), W. E. Suida (in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. XXIV, 1943, pp. 357 f.), and B. Berenson (Italian Pictures ... Venetian School, vol. I, 1957, p. 155). F. Heinemann (Giovanni Bellini e i belliniani, vol. I, 1962, p. 183) attributes it to Francesco da Santa Croce il Giovane. (3) The engraving is reproduced by H. Tietze, Tizian, text vol., 1936, pl. XV. The scrolls with the words PLVS VLTRA are not, as has been said (see loc. cit. in note 5, below), omitted from the engraving. (4) Suida, loc. cit. in note 2, above. (5) Preliminary Catalogue, 1941, pp. 179 f, as Santa Croce. (6) Catalogue by Suida, 1952, p. 52, as Santa Croce.