{"id":5965,"date":"2012-06-22T11:25:58","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T15:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso\/?page_id=5965"},"modified":"2012-12-21T14:03:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T19:03:00","slug":"rp-19","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/rejected-paintings-sculpture\/rp-19\/","title":{"rendered":"RP.19 Challenge of the Pierides"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

RP.19 Challenge of the Pierides<\/p><\/div>\n

Paris, Louvre, Inv. 595.<\/p>\n

Canvas, transferred from panel, 31 x 63.<\/p>\n

Fig.RP.19<\/a><\/p>\n

The transfer to canvas was done in 1765 by Robert Picault and the painting was restored in 1972; there are small losses throughout, especially visible on Apollo\u2019s face, and it would seem that the contour of the mound of land at the lower right may have been slightly raised from what it was before the restoration.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The tonality of the group of Muses at the lower left is brown and gray with some pink on the noses, cheeks, and soles of the feet.\u00a0 The center figure of this group, in profile, has a green and yellow headdress.\u00a0 The upper and central group of figures is much more reddish.\u00a0 The seated woman at the left holding three green palm fronds is seated on a patch of rose and orange drapery with two green dots.\u00a0 The figure to the left of Apollo has olive-green leaves in his hair.\u00a0 Apollo has blond hair possibly with a pink flower at the front.\u00a0 His quiver is dark orange.\u00a0 Minerva\u2019s black helmet has a yellow scroll on top.\u00a0 Her garment is white at the chest, turquoise over her breasts, with a violet skirt with violet and red stripes across her left thigh.\u00a0 (The last female head of this group at the right is very beautifully painted and well preserved.)\u00a0 The first woman of the group of the clothed Pierides wears white with yellow changing to rose at the right.\u00a0 The second woman is dressed in yellow-ochre, followed by a woman in turquoise becoming rose-lavender with an orange skirt going to grayish purple.\u00a0 The fourth woman wears dark blue-green with a dark orange belt.\u00a0 The fifth wears orange with a small piece of an ochre skirt visible below.\u00a0 The sixth woman is dressed in bluish gray over a pink skirt, followed by a woman wearing dark yellow-ochre.\u00a0 The eighth figure has a pink-lavender dress, tan at the chest, and with a tan belt.\u00a0 The last woman has a yellow mantle becoming blue-green, and wears a green dress with tan fringe over a gray-yellow skirt.\u00a0 The sky is blue-green becoming pink-orange behind blue-green mountains at the right.\u00a0 The ground and trees are dark greens and browns.<\/p>\n

PROVENANCE: The origins of this picture are not clear.\u00a0 It has been thought to be the picture that Cassiano dal Pozzo saw at Fontainebleau in 1625 and recognized as by Rosso.2<\/sup><\/a> \u00a0But it has also been related to a picture indicated as by Rosso offered by Giovanni Battista Crescenzi to the King of England supposedly around 1614 during the reign of James I.3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Villot, 1849, 142, no. 386, reported that the picture had been taken from Italy to Spain, and then belonged to Charles I of England.\u00a0 De Ricci, 1913, 121, no. 1486, recorded that the painting had been owned by the \u201cmarquis de Cresentius,\u201d whom he identified as the architect of the King of Spain, and that Cresentius gave it to Lord Cottingham, who in turn gave it to Charles I (reigned 1625-1649).\u00a0 The documentation for this provenance is unknown to me, as is also the identification of the \u201cmarquis de Cresentius\u201d with Giovanni Battista Crescenzi.\u00a0 Villot and De Ricci recorded that it was bought by Jabach for 117 pounds sterling at the sale of Charles I\u2019s collection (according to De Ricci as recorded in the Louvre catalogue of 1757, 124, n. 5).\u00a0 There is a \u201cParnassus Mount\u201d ascribed to Perino del Vaga from the collection of Charles I recorded as having been sold for 117 pounds to one Linchbeck on 19 April 1650 (Millar, 1972, 266).\u00a0 It would seem to have been a small picture as it was recorded as \u201cin a case\u201d (unless this means in a frame).\u00a0 This would seem to be the Louvre Pierides<\/em> that in Le Brun\u2019s inventory of 1683 is described as Le Montparnasse <\/em>(see Engerand, 1899, 40).\u00a0 This would seem to offer the first indication of the English provenance of the picture, which, however, might go back no earlier than 1625 when Charles became king, but certainly before 1649, leaving open the possibility that it is the same picture that Dal Pozzo saw at Fontainebleau in 1625 and that is not recorded thereafter.\u00a0 This would mean that Crescenzi\u2019s offer to the English King would have to have been after that date, that the offer was not taken, and that Lord Cottingham bought the picture instead.\u00a0 Villot and De Ricci stated that Mazarin acquired the picture from Jabach and that after Mazarin\u2019s death (1661) his heirs sold the picture to Louis XIV in 1671.\u00a0 It is listed in Le Brun\u2019s inventory of the king\u2019s pictures of 1683 (no. 62).\u00a0 It appears in Bailly\u2019s inventory of 1709 and 1710 (Engerand, 1899, 40-41) as at Versailles with an attribution to Perino del Vaga.\u00a0 See De Ricci and Engerand on its location at Versailles already in 1695, and on its subsequent locations to 1788.\u00a0 Chataignier and Niquet\u2019s print (see below) indicates that it was in the Galerie Napoleon.<\/p>\n

LITERATURE:<\/p>\n

Heinecken, I, 1778, 625, as attributed to Rosso, and to Perino del Vaga in France.<\/p>\n

Villot, 1849, 142, no. 386, with provenance, as by Perino del Vaga, but citing Mariette\u2019s attribution to Rosso as recorded in L\u00e9pici\u00e9, Catalogue des tableaux du cabinet du roi<\/em>, 1752, quoting Mariette\u2019s Cabinet Crozat<\/em> (1741) [see also Mariette, Ab\u00e9cedario<\/em>, 1858-1859, 20].<\/p>\n

Villot, 1854, 208-209, no. 369, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Dimier, 1905, 18, Fig., 22, as Rosso, and perhaps painted for Francis I.<\/p>\n

Gamba, 1910, 146, as by Rosso and painted in France.<\/p>\n

Goldschmidt, 1911, 22-23, 51, as Rosso, as the original of Caraglio\u2019s print.<\/p>\n

De Ricci, 1913, 121, no. 1486, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Voss, 1920, I, 189, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Dimier, Histoire<\/em>, 1925, 50, Pl. 35, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Dimier, 1928, 9, as Rosso and painted for Francis I.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1931, 28-29, 128, Pl. 21, as Rosso, around 1525.<\/p>\n

Mez, 1932, 157, as a copy of a lost work by Rosso.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1932, 495, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Venturi, IX, 5, 1932, 231, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Kusenberg, 1935, 62, as Rosso, around 1525.<\/p>\n

Becherucci, 1944 (1949), 29, as Rosso, in Rome.<\/p>\n

Barocchi, 1950, 89-92, 250, Figs. 61, 63-64, as derived from Caraglio\u2019s print and by a painter of the mid-sixteenth century educated under Primaticcio.<\/p>\n

Bologna and Causa, 1952, 27, no. 44, Pl. 42, as by an unknown French artist of the sixteenth century.<\/p>\n

Shearman, 1957, I, 247, 251-252, II, 231, n. 79, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9guin, 1960, 139, n. 21, as apparently a copy and reminding one of Thiry.<\/p>\n

Berenson, 1963, 195, as Rosso (?).<\/p>\n

B\u00e9guin, in EdF<\/em>, 1972, 174, Fig., 175-176, no. 199, and Fontainebleau<\/em>, 1973, I, 38, Fig. 2, II, 63-64, no. 199 (with extensive bibliography), as by Rosso, done in Rome, and engraved by Caraglio.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9guin, in B\u00e9guin, et al, 1972, 5, 10, Fig. 18 (color), 11, as by Rosso, and done in Rome.<\/p>\n

Cox-Rearick, 1972, 38-39, no. 45, with Fig., as by Rosso and done in Rome, and possibly brought to France by Rosso.<\/p>\n

Miles, 1973, 32, questioned the attribution to Rosso and thought Caraglio\u2019s prints more faithful to Rosso.<\/p>\n

Mirimonde, 1973, 142, Fig. 1, 146-147, as derived from Caraglio\u2019s engraving with mistakes in the rendering of the musical instruments that cannot be attributed to Rosso.<\/p>\n

Laskin, 1974, 261, Fig. 8, as Rosso, with a landscape that recalls Polidoro.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9guin, Louvre<\/em>, 1982, 35-36, no. 26, with Fig., 56, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

L\u00e9v\u00eaque, 1984, 135, Color Pl., as Rosso.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9guin, in Ronsard<\/em>, 1985, 58-59, no. 49, with Fig., as now generally accepted as by Rosso.<\/p>\n

Carroll, 1987, 94, n. 2, under no. 17, as not by Rosso and derived from Caraglio\u2019s engraving.<\/p>\n

Massari, 1989, 141, as Rosso, according to B\u00e9guin, and in reverse of Caraglio\u2019s print.<\/p>\n

Scailli\u00e9rez, 1992, 17, 18, Fig. 12, as Rosso.<\/p>\n

Franklin, 1994, 285, n. 106, as not by Rosso.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is not clear when this picture first became related to Rosso but by 1741, after a period of having been ascribed to Perino del Vaga, Mariette recognized it as Rosso\u2019s, most probably because of its relationship to Caraglio\u2019s print and to Vasari\u2019s remarks on the latter.\u00a0 In his account of Caraglio\u2019s printmaking after Rosso\u2019s designs, Vasari said that Caraglio \u201ccondusse, pure col disegno del Rosso, la storia delle Piche.\u201d\u00a0 There is no indication that Rosso made a painting of this story in Rome nor that Caraglio made any of his prints after paintings by Rosso.\u00a0 The evidence both of Vasari\u2019s words and of the drawings that survive for the Gods in Niches<\/em> of 1526 (Fig.D.17A<\/a>; Fig.D17B<\/a>; Fig.D.17C<\/a>; Fig.D.18a<\/a>) indicates that Rosso made only drawings from which Caraglio made extremely faithful engravings.\u00a0 The painting in the Louvre has a different format from Caraglio\u2019s print; it is considerably wider and there is more ground at the bottom.\u00a0 The resulting greater amplitude of the space in the painting is quite unlike what appears in the print, and is quite unlike what appears in any of Rosso\u2019s authentic works.\u00a0 The groups of figures have been more widely separated in the painting and the relationship of the landscape elements to the figures is not the same as in the print.\u00a0 The costumes of the Pierides are different in the painting, only the first woman having bare breasts, although this very figure has partially covered breasts in the print.\u00a0 The landscape has been much extended at left and right, and at the bottom where there is more land, and there is also a small waterfall that is not in the print.\u00a0 But the painting is also different in lacking and adding certain details that clearly indicate that the painter did not really understand the subject and the conception of the image.\u00a0 There are no birds in the painting, although birds are an essential part of the story, as the Pierides in losing the contest were turned into magpies.\u00a0 Furthermore, as Mirimonde pointed out, the instruments, archeologically \u201ccorrect\u201d in the print, have been ignorantly changed in the painting.\u00a0 Mirimonde rightly, it seems to me, could not recognize these changes as due to Rosso.\u00a0 The painting must follow from the print and be by someone who did not quite understand the meaning of what the engraving depicts.<\/p>\n

The small picture does have a certain exquisiteness and charm.\u00a0 But the elaboration of the landscape has no parallel in works by Rosso.\u00a0 The landscape bears a certain affinity with the landscapes of Niccol\u00f2 dell\u2019Abbate.\u00a0 Some of the figures have a certain awkwardness, a regularity of form, and a strangeness of face that suggest that the painting may have been made not from Caraglio\u2019s print but from an impression of the print made from the plate as reworked by Enea Vico in 1553 (Fig.E.110<\/a>).\u00a0 I would think that the picture was done in France after Rosso\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

COPIES, PAINTINGS: Louis Boullogne, copy made for Jabach, reported by Andr\u00e9 F\u00e9libien, Entretiens sur les vies et les ouvrages des plus excellents peintres anciens et modernes<\/em>, Tr\u00eavoux, 1725, IV, 309.\u00a0 Massari, 1989, 141.<\/p>\n

Formerly, Collection of Desmond Fitzgerald, the Knight of Glyn, Ireland.\u00a0 Oil on panel, c. 10 x 24 inches.\u00a0 Exhibited at the Arcade Gallery, London, 1967, sold to Neuendorf, a German dealer?\u00a0 Mirimonde, 1973, 143, mentioned it as matching exactly Chauveau\u2019s print after the Louvre picture (see below).\u00a0 Massari, 1989, 141.<\/p>\n

COPIES, DRAWINGS: London, British Museum, 1946-7-13-118 (Fig.RP.19, London, drawing<\/a>).\u00a0 Pen and ink over red chalk, 7.2 x 11.4, the picture area: 6.5 x 11.4.\u00a0 Massari, 1989, 141.\u00a0 Derived from Chauveau\u2019s print after the Louvre drawing (see below).<\/p>\n

Oxford, Christ Church, no. 1185 (Fig.RP.19, Oxford, drawing<\/a>).\u00a0 Pen and black ink, brown wash, heightened in white (oxidized black and red in places) over very slight traces of black chalk, on tan prepared paper, 25.4 x 50.\u00a0 Inscribed in ink on the mount in Richardson\u2019s hand, at the left: Nicola del\u2019 Abate delin<\/em>, at the right: d\u2019appresso P. Perucino<\/em>.\u00a0 LITERATURE: Mirimonde, 1973, 142, 143, as representing the Louvre picture and related to the painting exhibited at the Arcade Gallery (see above).\u00a0 Byam Shaw, 1976, I, 67, no. 127, as derived from the Louvre painting, hardly earlier than the middle of the seventeenth century, and stylistically reminiscent of Domenichino.\u00a0 Massari, 1989, 141.<\/p>\n

The drawing would seem to be copied from the Louvre painting with a few landscape details added, especially in the foreground, and not from a print of it.\u00a0 It is not derived from Chauveau\u2019s print (see below) and would not be the model for it, which in certain details is closer to the painting.\u00a0 It is not related to the print by Chataignier and Niquet (see below).\u00a0 I do not know how it is related to Desnoyers\u2019s print (see below).\u00a0 The detail of the drawing suggests that it was made as the model for a print.<\/p>\n

COPIES, PRINTS: Fran\u00e7ois Chauveau (1613-1676), etching, 26.3 x 51.4, picture area (New York, 47.100.1110).\u00a0 COLLECTIONS: New York, 47.100.1110 and 59.505 (2), p.92.\u00a0 Paris.\u00a0 Vienna, Vol. H.B.IV, p.96, no. 104 (Fig.RP.19, Chauveau, Vienna<\/a>).\u00a0 LITERATURE: Le Blanc, 1854-1888\/90, II, 2, no. 119.\u00a0 Kusenberg, 1931, 163, as after the Louvre painting.\u00a0 Mirimonde, 1973, 142, 143, Fig. 3 (Paris), as representing the Louvre painting.<\/p>\n

A very careful copy of the painting.<\/p>\n

Alexis Chataignier (1772-1817) and Niquet.\u00a0 Etching, 10.4 x 19.7 L (London).\u00a0 Inscribed above: 692 PERIN DEL VAGA Eco.le<\/sup> Itali.ne<\/sup><\/em> and below: Dessin\u00e9 par Girod. Grav\u00e9 a l\u2019Eau-fort par Chatataiger Termin\u00e9 par Niquet LE COMBAT DES MUSES ET DES PI\u00c9RIDES Gal Napoleon<\/em>.\u00a0 COLLECTIONS: London, 1856-3-8-1159.\u00a0 Paris.\u00a0 LITERATURE: Villot, 1854, 208, under 369.\u00a0 De Ricci, 1913, 121, under 1486.\u00a0 Mirimonde, 1973, 142, 143, Fig. 4 (Paris).<\/p>\n

Less precise than Chauveau\u2019s print.<\/p>\n

A. G. L. Desnoyers (Boucher-Desnoyers).\u00a0 Inscribed: Tableau du Mus\u00e9e Royal \/ 1829 le B.on\u00a0 <\/sup>Boucher-Desnoyers, A. G. L. B. France 1805 3<\/em>.\u00a0 COLLECTION: Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Museum.\u00a0 LITERATURE: Villot, 1854, 208, under 369.\u00a0 De Ricci, 1913, 121, under no. 1486.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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<\/a>1<\/sup> On the history of its conservation, see Gilberte \u00c9mile-M\u00e2le, \u201cEn marge de l\u2019exposition de l\u2019\u00c9cole de Fontainebleau: quelques documents in\u00e9dits sur le r\u00f4le d\u2019un artisan fran\u00e7ais, Robert Picault, dans la transposition du D\u00e9fi des Pi\u00e9rides<\/em> de Rosso du Mus\u00e9e du Louvre,\u201d Bulletin de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de l\u2019Histoire de l\u2019Art Fran\u00e7ais<\/em>, 1973, 33-36.<\/p>\n

<\/a>2<\/sup>\u00a0In 1625 Cassiano del Pozzo saw in the Cabinet des Peintures at Fontainebleau \u201c…un quadretto, un po bislong, nel quale \u00e8 una Disputa fra le Muse e l\u2019altre sorelle che da esse furon converite in gazzere<\/em>,…\u201d which he said was by Rosso (Pozzo-M\u00fcntz, 1886, 268; Kusenberg, 1931, 102, 201, n. 232).<\/p>\n

This report has been associated with the small picture in the Louvre.\u00a0 The provenance of the Louvre painting does not place it at Fontainebleau early in the seventeenth century but there is confusion here and it could, nevertheless, have been the picture Del Pozzo saw.\u00a0 But he may have seen another painting.<\/p>\n

<\/a>3<\/sup> In a list of paintings offered to \u201chis Majesty\u201d early in the seventeenth century titled \u201cCopie of a note given me by James Bapta Cresentio touching pictures\u201d there is given (Sainsbury, 1859, 354-355, no. CXXXIX, as \u201c[Indorsed by Carleton]\u201d): \u201cThe challenge of the Goddesses and Muses, by the hand of Roso, 400 ducats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sainsbury dated this list \u201c? about 1614\u201d in which case \u201chis Majesty\u201d to whom the pictures were offered for sale in a paragraph following the list was James I. Shearman, 1965, II, 217, under Cat. no. 32, identified the seller as the Roman Conte Giovanni Battista Crescenzi, who was either the owner of the listed pictures or an intermediary.<\/p>\n

The title and attribution of the painting suggest that it is related to Caraglio\u2019s engraving and this reference to it has been given as part of the provenance of the small painting in the Louvre, which has also been related to the picture that Cassiano del Pozzo saw at Fontainebleau in 1625. It is unlikely that the picture offered to the king was actually by Rosso. It is also unclear that it was the same picture that was at Fontainebleau in 1625.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paris, Louvre, Inv. 595. Canvas, transferred from panel, 31 x 63. Fig.RP.19 The transfer to canvas was done in 1765 by Robert Picault and the painting was restored in 1972; there are small losses throughout, especially visible on Apollo\u2019s face, and it would seem that the contour of the mound of land at the lower […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":1357,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5965","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5965"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6320,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5965\/revisions\/6320"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}