Diana as Huntress
Diana as Huntress
- Artist
- Attributed to Paris Bordone
- Artist Dates
- 1500-1571
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Diana as Huntress
- Date
- c. 1550
- Medium
- oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 27.9 x 65.4 cm (11 x 25-3/4 in)
- K Number
- K127
- Repository
- Russell Library
- Notes
Provenance
Marchese Doria, Genoa. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955] Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 30 September 1930 as School of Giorgione; gift to the Adelia M. Russell Library, Alexander City, Alabama on 9 June 1964, no.27.1998; on loan to Birmingham Museum of Art.
Catalogue Entry
Attributed to Paris Bordone
Diana as Huntress
K127
Alexander City, Ala., Alexander City Public Library, since 1964. Wood. 11 X 25 3/4 in. (27.9 X 65.4 cm.). Fair condition; abraided in figures, sky, and along bottom of panel; some restoration; cleaned 1955. The almost unanimous attribution of K127 to Bordone is impressive;(1) but X-ray shows considerable areas of pigment missing and so much revision (albeit early) of the figures as to recommend some caution in classifying the style.(2) Resemblance in composition, size, and format may be noted between K127 and a painting attributed to Girolamo da Santa Croce, the Rape of Europa formerly in the Sterbini Collection(3) and now in the Museo di Palazzo Venezia, Rome. In the same respects resemblance has recently been noted between K127 and another Rape of Europa, this one in the Antonio Zangrando Collection, Breda di Piave (Treviso), which has been attributed to Bordone, partly on the strength of the attribution to him of K127.(4) A dating of about 1550 is suggested for both the Zangrando picture and K127.(5) Parallels with K127 may be found also in paintings by Andrea Schiavone and, like some of Schiavone's small panels of the same format, K127 may have been designed as furniture decoration. It should be noted that the figure in the left distance, which now appears in the guise of Mercury, an incongruous actor in the scene, is badly blurred in the shadowgraph. Provenance: Marchese Doria, Genoa. Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1930 – exhibited: 'Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Samuel H. Kress,' Sept. 1933, Seattle, Wash., through June 1935, Charlotte, N.C., p.47 of catalogue, as Bordone; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (171), 1941-51.(6)
References
(1) K127 has been attributed to Bordone by G. Fiocco, R. Longhi, R. van Marle, F. M. Perkins, A. Venturi, W. E. Suida (in ms. opinions), B. Berenson (Italian Pictures ... Venetian School, vol. I, 1957, P.47), and G. Canova (Paris Bordon, 1964, pp. 53, 108 f), usually stressing its Giorgionesque character and dating it early in Bordone's career; only Canova suggests a date in the 1550's. (2) H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat (in ms. opinion) have rejected any definite attribution. (3) Published when in this collection, by A. Venturi (La Galleria Sterbini in Roma, 1906, pp. 169 f, fig. 69). (4) Canova, in Arte Veneta, vol. XXII, 1968, pp. 172 f. (5) Ibid. (6) Preliminary Catalogue, 1941, p. 27, as Bordone.