Giovanni Francesco Caroto

William Graham;

By whom sold, London, Christie's, 9 May 1930, lot 124 (as Palma il Vecchio), for £44–2s. to Vale;

General Sir James Willoughby Gordon, GCMQ of Northcourt, QMG at War Office, and private secretary to HRH the Duke of Kent;

Lord Burgh, Northcourt, Isle of Wight (this and the above line according to a Frick Library mount, recorded in Philip Pouncey's notes);

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 28 July 1950, lot 155 (as Giorgione), for 40 guineas to Wall;

With Leger Galleries, London;

From whom acquired by Philip (1910–1990) and Myril Pouncey (1907–2001);

Their posthumous sale ('The Pouncey Collection: Old Master Paintings from the Collection Formed by the Late Philip and Myril Pouncey sold by Order of the Executors of the Late Myril Pouncey'), New York, Sotheby's, 23 January 2003, lot 63;

Where acquired by the present owner.

C. Del Bravo, 'Per Giovan Francesco Caroto', in Paragone, vol. XV, no. 173, 1964, p. 6, reproduced pl. 3;

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central and North Italian Schools, London 1968, vol. I, p. 79, reproduced vol. III, fig. 1882 (erroneously described as a much restored studio work);

M.T. Franco Fiorio, Giovan Francesco Caroto, Verona 1971, pp. 84 and 88, no. 15, reproduced fig. 11.

First identified by Carlo Del Bravo in 1964, this panel is one of three illustrating the story of the Death and Burial of the Virgin. The two other companion panels, of slightly smaller dimensions, are in the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey.¹ Given the larger format of this work, it probably formed the central part of the predella of an altarpiece. Del Bravo and later Maria Teresa Franco Fiorio (see Literature) date all three panels to the artist’s early period, circa 1510, placing them in relation to the predella depicting The Death of the Virgin by Liberale da Verona, now in the Palazzo Arcivescovile, Verona.²

Note on Provenance

This work once formed part of the collection of Philip Pouncey, the great connoisseur of Italian Old Master Paintings and Drawings. An expert on Italian Renaissance art and former Sotheby’s Senior Specialist, Pouncey was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1975 and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987. Alongside his wife Myril, herself a noted art historian, the couple amassed a significant collection of artworks, including Ludovico Carracci’s The Marriage of the Virgin, now in the National Gallery, London, and Sebastiano del Piombo’s Madonna and Child, in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.³

¹ Inv. nos y1935-33 and y1935-34; both oil on panel; both 65 x 70 cm.; https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/20132; and https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/20133

²http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/24117/Liberale%20da%20Verona%2C%20Transito%20della%20Madonna

³ https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ludovico-carracci-the-marriage-of-the-virgin; and https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/1034