Provenance

Robert Henry and Evelyn Holford Benson

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A pale, nearly nude young woman perches on a rock under a tree surrounded by small animals including dogs, deer, and birds, in this horizontal landscape painting. Her body faces us as, lips parted, she looks away to our left. She is covered only by an olive-green drape over her left thigh, on our right. She cradles what appears to be a tall stone tablet in her left arm and touches the inscribed surface with her right hand. White, buttercup-yellow, and crimson-red flowers crown her long blond hair. Her smooth pink skin stands out against the brown bark of the tree trunk behind her. By her right knee, a small brown doe stands looking at her. Closer to us, a white, wading bird dips its beak into a pool of water in the lower right corner of the painting. A large book of diagrams lies open next to the woman's foot, on the slate-gray ground. A small, white dog crouches next to the book on our right in front of a sleek, brown dog and a buck with antlers, and all face the woman in profile. In the trees above, a white hawk perches near the upper right corner of the canvas, and an owl sits on a branch over the woman’s head. Beyond the woman to our left, a steep bank is topped by wispy trees and shrubs. A sandy path meanders past the bank toward a wooden building in the distance. Delicate trees with rust-red and gold canopies frame the building, while a topaz-blue haze behind it suggests a forest beyond. Full, gray clouds fill the sky overhead above a band of pale light on the horizon.
Dosso Dossi, Circe and Her Lovers in a Landscape, c. 1525, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.49

Circe and Her Lovers in a Landscape

Dosso Dossi · c. 1525 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1943.4.49

A young, pale-skinned boy wearing a brilliant blue toga sits on a rock and holds a gold pitcher in a landscape in this vertical painting. The boy’s body faces us, and he leans onto his right hand, to our left, so his body and head tip in that direction. He wears a leafy crown over long blond curls. He looks slightly up with wide-set, light brown eyes. He has round, rosy cheeks, and his pink lips are parted. He holds the gold pitcher up in his left hand, to our right. One foot rests on a rock and the other stretches long, to our right. A thin tree grows diagonally up and to our right from behind the outstretched foot, and another tree grows a short distance beyond. Behind the boy, green hills roll back to the horizon, which comes three-quarters of the way up the composition. Mountains, which are blue in the hazy distance, line the horizon under a sky streaked with ivory white above the peaks and topaz blue above.
Giovanni Bellini, The Infant Bacchus, probably 1505/1510, oil on panel transferred to panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.5

The Infant Bacchus

Giovanni Bellini · probably 1505/1510 · oil on panel transferred to panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.5

Shown from the waist up, a young woman embraces a baby in this vertical painting. They both have peachy skin, reddish-blond hair, and round faces. The woman is angled to our left and almost takes up the height of the painting. She looks down with gray eyes through lowered lids, under slender, arched brows. She has a straight nose and her pale pink lips are closed. Barely visible, a thin dotted white line spans her brow. A few loose, copper-colored tendrils frame her face under an azure-blue mantle that drapes over her head, shoulders, and arms. Under the mantle she wears a brick-red robe with a stylized, plant-like pattern in gold on the upper bodice and the cuff we can see. Her left elbow, on our right, rests on a sage-green ledge that runs along the bottom edge of the composition, and that hand dangles over the child’s leg. Her other hand curves around the baby’s back. The child is turned to our right to face the woman. He is wrapped in a cloak the same red as the woman's robe, and it has a thin gold border. He sits on a kelly-green cushion resting along the left side of the ledge. His head is turned to gaze off to our right with large hazel eyes under thin brows. He has a button nose and a rosy flush around his small pink mouth, which is slightly open. His right hand dips into the woman’s neckline while the other arm embraces her neck. His right leg stretches out toward her so one pudgy foot peeks out from under the red cloth. The horizon of the landscape behind them comes halfway up the painting. Sloping fields are dotted with trees. Low hills are ice blue in the hazy distance along the horizon, and the sky above is nearly white near the mountains, deepening to pale blue along the top edge.
Antonello da Messina, Madonna and Child, c. 1475, oil and tempera on panel transferred from panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.30

Madonna and Child

Antonello da Messina · c. 1475 · oil and tempera on panel transferred from panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.30

Shown from the hips up, a young woman holds an upright baby against a richly patterned gold background in this vertical panel painting, which comes to a point at the top center. The woman nearly fills the panel, and she looms over a very small man kneeling in the lower left, facing our right in profile. The people all have ivory-white skin with a greenish cast, and petal-pink cheeks. The woman’s body faces us, supporting the baby in the curve of her left arm, our right. Thin, tawny-brown eyebrows arch over her hazel, almond-shaped eyes, which gaze off to our right. She has a long, narrow nose and small rose-pink mouth. Her head tilts to our right and is covered by an ivory-white cloth that frames her round face and wraps around the neckline of her burgundy-red gown. Over the white cloth and red dress, a long, midnight-blue mantle trimmed with gold covers her head, shoulders, and arms. A gold starburst adorns one shoulder. Tucked in the woman’s elbow to our right, the baby faces our left and wears a sheer garment covered by a burgundy-red, gold-edged cloth draped across his shoulders, back, and legs. The child has short, wavy, peach-colored hair and echos the woman’s thin eyebrows and hazel eyes. He reaches out with his right hand, to our left, to clutch her scarf while his other hand delicately touches the fingers of her hand, which brushes his chest. The man in the lower left is significantly smaller in scale so his kneeling body comes only up to the woman's elbow. His blond hair is cut in a ring above the ears, and he wears a dove-gray cloak with a long hood falling back over his shoulders. His right hand is raised, fingers extended, and he tilts his head up to look at the woman. Intricate, patterned halos surrounding the heads of the woman and child are punched and incised into the gold background. A decorative border of flowers, leaves, and dots line the sides of the panel and meet at the pointed top. Areas of brick red show through some areas of the gold background.
Lippo Memmi, Madonna and Child with Donor, 1325/1330, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.11

Madonna and Child with Donor

Lippo Memmi · 1325/1330 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.11

A winged angel leads a clean-shaven young man across a landscape in this vertical painting. The angel and man nearly fill the composition. They both have pale skin slightly tinged with green, rosy cheeks, copper-blond curly hair, fluttering robes, and halos. Their jaws are rounded, and their full lips closed. They each step forward onto one foot. To our left, the angel’s head turns back with eyes downcast or closed. The angel’s sky-blue robe is gathered up around the waist and falls to the ankles. The neckline and bottom hem are edged with gold writing, and the halo is a gold ring filled in with gold dots. The angel holds a gold vessel or object in the right hand, farther from us, and reaches the other arm slightly back. The man, Tobias, leans forward and reaches one arm to hook wrists with the angel. A scroll curls down from Tobias’s wrist. He tips his head to our left and looks up with large, light brown eyes. He wears a rose-pink robe over a powder-blue tunic. The robe also has gold lettering around the lower hem, and he wears matching pink stockings and shin-high, golden-yellow boots. He carries a fish hanging from a gold thread with his other hand. Gold rays radiate around his head like a starburst. A small, shaggy white dog looks at the ground to our left of the angel’s feet. Some forest-green shrubs and spindly trees with sage-green canopies grow on the far side of the path. Water winds into the distance to meet white buildings along the right edge of the composition. More trees and a steeple are hazy blue in the distance along the horizon, which comes about halfway up the painting. The sky is streaked with white and ice blue.
Filippino Lippi, Tobias and the Angel, c. 1475/1480, oil and tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.229

Tobias and the Angel

Filippino Lippi · c. 1475/1480 · oil and tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.229

Shown from the chest up, this pale-skinned woman wears a transparent veil and a green gown laced up the bodice in this vertical portrait painting. Her shoulders and face angle to our left, and she looks at us from the corners of her brown eyes with her head tipped slightly away from us. She has faint, arched brows, a long, delicate nose, and a rounded jaw. Shallow dimples to either side of her pale pink lips suggest a faint smile over a cleft chin. Her blond hair is pulled back under a diaphanous veil, which is held in place with a band around the crown of her head. The veil falls in gossamer folds over her shoulders. The bodice and sleeves of her gown are asparagus green. The front is laced over a white shirt, and the white fabric has been pulled through at her shoulders where the sleeves would be tied to the bodice. The gold dress and the white chemise are edged with bands of floral, geometric patterns in gold, and a gold belt wraps around her waist. The pendant hanging from her pearl necklace has red and blue gems set in gold, with three more pearls hanging from the bottom. Another necklace looks like a chain of small, star-like forms, and it is tucked into her bodice. She holds her right hand, to our left, cupped near her chest, and her other arm hangs by her side, off the bottom edge of the composition. The background is black, and the edge of the panel is decorated with a band of gold, geometric, knot-like patterns. The gold border disappears behind the woman’s shoulders, which span the width of the painting.
Girolamo di Benvenuto, Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1508, oil on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.353

Portrait of a Young Woman

Girolamo di Benvenuto · c. 1508 · oil on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.353

A bearded and balding man with deeply tanned skin, dressed only in a strip of robin’s egg-blue fabric around his shoulders and hips, sits reading a book on a rock at the entrance to a craggy cave, in front of a landscape in this vertical painting. In the lower right corner of the composition, the man, Saint Jerome, faces our left in profile, his head bowed toward the open book propped on the rock near the knee farther from us. His hair and beard are parchment white, and he has a prominent brow ridge, a long, hooked nose, and sunken cheeks. His arms and legs are sinewy and his torso is muscled. The blue cloth is knotted over his left shoulder and wraps around his hips. A lion lies next to Saint Jerome in lower right corner, his face toward us with his mouth open. There is a rectangular pool lined with blocky, cream-white stones at Saint Jerome’s feet, to our left. The cave behind him, to our right, has a jagged, narrow, vertical entrance, and there are rocky outcroppings above and to our left, over the pool. A stone arch spans the top edge of the painting, enclosing the scene below. Other animals appear around Saint Jerome, including a lizard near the pool; a squirrel on the grassy top of the cave entrance; and a black bird in the barren branches of a tree growing from the rocks above the cave. On the far side of the pool, two rabbits, white and brown, touch noses on a grass-topped, low, rocky wall. There is a hill with two dark green bushes beyond that. In the distance, a cluster of tan-colored, stone buildings, some in ruins, spread down a hillside to the water’s edge. Across the water to our right, deep in the distance, white buildings line the horizon, which comes about two-thirds of the way up this painting. A few puffs of white clouds float along the waterline against a vivd, azure-blue sky above.
Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading, 1505, oil on linden panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.217

Saint Jerome Reading

Giovanni Bellini · 1505 · oil on linden panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.217

Shown from the waist up, a young woman with pale, peachy skin faces and looks directly at us in this vertical portrait painting. The subtly upturned corners of her mouth and the outer corners of her eyes are touched with shadows. Her delicate eyebrows are faintly painted over dark brown eyes. She has a long straight nose and an oval-shaped face framed by large teardrop pearl earrings. Her dark brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under a wide, gold-colored headdress, which creates a halo-like ring around her head. Precisely formed curls rest against her forehead over each temple. Her black dress has voluminous, puffy sleeves framing a sheer, butter-yellow panel covering her chest. White ruffles emerge at her neck and cuffs. A gold Maltese cross, which flares at the end of each arm, hangs from a thick gold chain that falls over her chest and down to her waist. She touches the chain with her left hand, on our right, and with the other she holds the body of a small furry brown animal with bared teeth. The background behind the woman is black down the center and a dark emerald-green curtain falls to either side.
Bernardino Luini, Portrait of a Lady, 1520/1525, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.37

Portrait of a Lady

Bernardino Luini · 1520/1525 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.37

A man and two winged angels support the limp body of a muscular, nearly nude man, Jesus, who is perched on the end of a tomb in this wide, horizontal painting. The people all have nearly white-colored skin faintly tinged with green. Jesus’s knees and body are angled very slightly to our left, and his head hangs down in that direction with his eyes and lips closed. He has a beard and long blond hair and a delicate gold halo. White cloth wraps around his shoulders and upper arms and another across his hips, and blood trickles from a gash over his right ribs. The man supporting him is bearded and wears a sapphire-blue turban and a raspberry-red robe. He looks at us from over Jesus’s left shoulder, to our right, and he supports Jesus’s torso with both hands. Both angels have blue robes over amethyst-purple garments visible only at the necklines and cuffs, long blond hair, gold halos, and wings shaded with pastel blue, yellow, and pink. They each support one of Jesus’s arms near the elbows. The angel to our left looks up at Jesus and holds one end of the white cloth that wraps around Jesus’s shoulders. The other angel looks down and holds a ring of thorns. The fabric separates Jesus’s body from the man and angel’s touch for all four hands. Jesus’s legs are shown from the mid-thigh up against the dark opening of the rectangular tomb. The area behind the group is dark within a rocky outcropping painted with shades of caramel and ash brown.
Filippino Lippi, Pietà (The Dead Christ Mourned by Nicodemus and Two Angels), c. 1500, oil (and possibly tempera) on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.86

Pietà (The Dead Christ Mourned by Nicodemus and Two Angels)

Filippino Lippi · c. 1500 · oil (and possibly tempera) on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.86

An old man and a young woman holding an infant are seated together in the center of this almost square painting. All three people have pale, peachy skin. To our left, the man sits on a low, tan brick wall with his head bowed to look at the baby on the woman’s lap. A periwinkle-blue cloak is wrapped around the kelly-green robe that covers his shoulders, back, and legs. One hand grips a short staff planted on the ground. His receding white hair and beard are thin and scraggly with tufts sticking out over his ears. The woman sits next to and slightly in front of him, to our right, on a low rock, her body angled toward the man. A long, cobalt-blue cloak is draped around her shoulders and covers her knees over her rose-pink gown. Her honey-brown hair is parted in the middle and gathered at the back of her head. Her brown eyes look down at the infant, who is blond with brown eyes. A long white shawl is tucked into the neckline of her dress, drapes over her shoulders, and wraps under the baby as she cradles his body with one hand under his backside and the other behind his head. The baby lies on his back with his head turned toward the woman, and he points to her with one outstretched arm. The dirt ground is scattered with pebbles that make a loose ring around the trio, with moss-green growth to either side. A brown brick wall fills the upper half of the composition behind the people and extends off the top edge. A rounded arch pierces the back wall to our right of the woman. On the other side of the opening, trees with copper-brown leaves grow up along the left and the landscape beyond opens onto rocky hills with a white, square tower. In the deep distance, the silhouette of a town is painted in robin’s egg-blue against a pale peach horizon line. Thin, white clouds skim across the blue sky above.
Giorgione, The Holy Family, probably c. 1500, oil on panel transferred to hardboard, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.8

The Holy Family

Giorgione · probably c. 1500 · oil on panel transferred to hardboard ·  Accession ID  1952.2.8