Lot 157: Girolamo da Santacroce , Santa Croce, Bergamo 1480/5-1556 Venice The nativity oil on panel

oil on panel

measurements note 42 by 47.1 cm.; 16 1/2 by 18 1/2 in.

Lady Robertson;
With Colnaghi, London, 1960 (according to Witt Library Mount);
With Thomas Agnew and Sons, 1960, nos. 21629 and 40492 (according to two separate labels on the reverse), from whom purchased by a private collector;
Thence by direct inheritance.

PROPERTY FROM AN ENGLISH PRIVATE COLLECTION
Girolamo da Santacroce started his career in the workshop of Gentile Bellini who, in his will, left him half of the drawings of oriental figures which he had lent to Pinturicchio. Girolamo subsequently assisted Giovanni Bellini and by 1517 was working independently.

Another autograph version of this composition, but with numerous differences, is in the Gemaldegalerie, Dresden.υ1 The Dresden version differs from the present work in adopting a more horizontal format, and includes more angels hovering above the holy family, slight differences in the appearance of the figures, and a much altered barn and landscape setting. It is a composition to which the Santa Croce family returned on several further occasions; other examples, given to Francesco di Girolamo da Santa Croce, are in Basel, Kunstmuseum,υ2 and Berlin, Staatliche Museum.υ3

We are grateful to Everett Fahy for endorsing the attribution following inspection of the original. 1. See H. Marx et al., Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden, vol. I, Cologne 2005, p. 201, reproduced.
2. See B. della Chiesa & E. Baccheschi, in I Pittori Bergamaschi. Il Cinquecento, vol. II, p. 35, no. 2, reproduced p. 66, no. 3.
3. Idem. p. 36, no. 7, reproduced p. 66, no. 4.