Nativity

Maker

Attributed to
(artist)
1430-1516

Title

Nativity

Date of Production

(circa) 1480

Medium

pen and brown ink on laid paper, the upper corners cut; inlaid into a historic paper support; the areas of brown "wash" appear to have been done with the pen nib, except for the area at upper left, which is a stain showing through from the verso

Dimensions

Height: 20.1 cm
Width: 21.5 cm

Accession Number

D.1978.PG.79

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords







Label Text

This confident composition has been associated with the work of the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini. We are given a close view of the Holy Family, separated by a picket fence from the sweeping landscape beyond. The drawing’s technique is wide ranging, from the precise hatching employed for Joseph and Mary to the free technique used for the shepherds. The artist has worked confidently, moving from left to right. He did, however, make changes as he went. For instance, the ox’s tail was drawn over the dog.

Provenance

Sir Peter Lely, London (1618-1680), L.2092; possibly sold at either of his auctions in April 1688 or November 1694 (no surviving catalogues); George Le Hunte, Artramount, Ireland, by 1842 (when published in a now-lost inventory); by descent to Misses M.H.L.E. and M.D. Le Hunte; their estate sale, Sotheby's (London), 9 June 1955, lot 43; purchased there by Colnaghi (London) on behalf of Count Antoine Seilern (1901-1978) (£4,000; the Colnaghi archive book mistakenly lists this as purchased at A.G.B. Russell's sale, which was earlier that same day); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

Mantegna/Bellini, National Gallery, London, 01/10/2018-27/01/2019; Staatliche Museen, Berlin, 01/03/2019-30/06/2019

Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 10/10/2017-14/01/2018

Mantegna to Matisse - Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, The Frick Collection, New York, 02/10/2012-27/01/2013 ...More

Mantegna to Matisse - Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/06/2012-09/09/2012

Master Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 16/10/1991-19/01/1992

Mantegna to Cezanne - Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 24/02/1983-19/06/1983

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection A), The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/07/1981-26/01/1982 ...Less

Literature

Goldner, George R., 'Mantegna and Bellini' (review) in 'Master Drawings', 2019 - pp. 237-44; 57, 2
p. 238
puzzled by keeping it as 'attributed to'

Campbell, Caroline, '"Mantegna and Bellini" in London and Berlin', The Burlington Magazine 161 (August 2019), 2019
p. 654
ill. on p. 665

Mantegna & Bellini, National Gallery, London and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1 October 2018 - 30 June 2019, 2018
p. 223
fig. 216
as attributed to Bellini, c. 1480 ...More

Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice, J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2017 - 18
cat. no. 4
ill. on p. 77
entry author: Antonio Mazzotta, as autograph Bellini, dated c. 1470

Mantegna to Matisse - Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery, Frick Collection, New York and Courtauld Gallery, London London 2012-2013
cat. no. 5
ill. on p. 53
as attributed to Bellini (?), c. 1480

Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance drawings, British Museum, London and Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 2010
p. 18
fig. 2

Goldner, George, 'Bellini's drawings' in 'The Cambridge companion to Giovanni Bellini', Cambridge 2004
pp. 238 and 242-43
fig. 82 on p. 242

Forlani Tempesti, Anna, The Robert Lehman Collection. V. Italian fifteenth to seventeenth-century drawings, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University Press 1991
pp. 42-43 under no. 13
fig. 13.2 on p. 43

Master Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1991
cat. no. 7
pp. 22, 172
ill. on p. 23
dated as probably 1470s

Farr, Dennis, 100 Masterpieces from the Courtauld Collections, London: Courtauld Institute Galleries, 1987
p. 120
ill. on p. 121

Mantegna to Cezanne: Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 1983
cat. no. 1
ill. on p. 12 and Plate I

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection A), Courtauld Gallery, London, 1981-1982
cat. no. 125
ill. on p. 88
as autograph Bellini, dated c. 1475

Wilde, Johannes, Venetian art from Bellini to Titian, Oxford 1974
pp. 26-27
pl. 25 on p. 28
as autograph Bellini

Seilern, Count Antoine, Corrigenda and Addenda to the Catalogue of paintings and drawings at 56 Princes Gate, London, London 1971
no. 79
as autograph Bellini with reproduced long note attesting to this by Johannes Wilde

Robertson, Giles, Giovanni Bellini, Oxford 1968
pp. 27, 72-73, 137
pl. LIIa

Heinemann, Fritz; translated by Lucio Grossato and Franco Barbieri, Giovanni Bellini e i Belliniani, Venice 1962-91; 3 vols.
[1962] no. S. 898 on p. 212
fig. 619
listed under 'School of' Bellini

Seilern, Count Antoine, Italian paintings and drawings at 56 Princes Gate, London, SW7, London 1959; II
no. 79 and under no. 345 (note by Johannes Wilde)
pl. XXXIII
as attributed to Bellini, dated before 1475

'£84,800 for Old Master' in 'The Times', 10 June 1955
unpag.

Sutton, Denys, '£15,190 paid for Herald's art collection' in 'Daily Telegraph', 10 June 1955
unpag.

Sotheby's, London, 'Sotheby & Co announce the sale on Thursday 9 June 1955 of Old Master drawings and paintings' in 'The Burlington Magazine', May 1955; 97, 626
ill. on p. vii

Sotheby's, London, Important old master drawings; fine paintings, 9 June 1955
lot 43
ill. on frontispiece ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: lower centre edge: triple mount with a cross (see tracing in file; 2.5 cm wide; closest match is Briquet 11782, though that is smaller - Padua 1515. Mark has erroneously been described in literature as a bird).

Inscription: Recto: lower right edge, brown ink: “L.” (Seilern suggested this was an imitation of Lucas van Leyden's signature). Verso: left lower edge, brown ink: “BACno 19” [not 17] (Getty 2017 says this probably refers to Roger North's numbering of the portfolio after Lely's death); lower left edge, brown ink: “1743”. Support (historic), Recto: upper centre, brown ink: “80” (Farr 1987 suggests this may be George Le Hunte's hand, see 1955 sale catalogue). Mount (removed, now missing, recorded in 1955 sale catalogue): inscribed with numbers that referred to a manuscript list of the Le Hunte collection, compiled in 1842 by ‘George Le Hunte of Artramount, Co. Wexford’ (the whereabouts of this manuscript inventory are unkown).

Collector's mark: Recto: upper right edge and again at lower right corner, stamped in black: Sir Peter Lely (L.2092).

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