1979.54: Farm Buildings on a Hill with Horseman; verso: Town and Watermill; Farm Buildings in a Valley

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1979.54

People

Fra Bartolommeo della Porta, Italian (Florence, Italy 1472 - 1517 Florence, Italy)

Title

Farm Buildings on a Hill with Horseman; verso: Town and Watermill; Farm Buildings in a Valley

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

c. 1508

Places

Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Tuscany, Florence

Culture

Italian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/295525

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Brown ink on cream antique laid paper; verso: brown ink

Dimensions

29 x 22 cm (11 7/16 x 8 11/16 in.)
frame: 56.1 x 45 x 4 cm (22 1/16 x 17 11/16 x 1 9/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Paolo del Signoraccio, called Fra Paolino da Pistoia, Convent of San Marco, Florence, Probably artist's bequest to Fra Paolino, 1517, Bequest to Suor Plautilla Nelli. Fra Paolino da Pistoia (died 1547) was Fra Bartolommeo's studio assistant and, according to Vasari and Lorenzo di Credi, his heir.
Suor Plautilla Nelli, Convent of S. Caterina, Florence, Possibly acquired from Fra Paolina, 1547, Remained at the Convent of Santa Caterina, 1588. Suor Plautilla Nelli, Fra Paolina's pupil, entered the Convent of Santa Caterina in 1537. Fra Paolina must have given her the drawings before his death in 1547. The work remained at the convent until 1725.
Convent of Santa Caterina da Siena, Piazza San Marco, Florence, Bequest from Suor Plautilla Nelli, 1588, Sold to Cavaliere Francesco Gabburri, 1725. Possibly from the convent. (Buyer: Cavaliere Francesco Maria Nicolò Gabburri)
Cavaliere Francesco Maria Nicolò (1676-1742) Gabburri, Florence, Purchased from Convent of S. Caterina da Siena, 1725, Sold by Gabburri's heirs, 1742. The landscape drawings were bound into an album c. 1730. The frontispiece of the album bore the coat of arms of Gabburri. The drawings were attributed at that time to Andrea del Sarto. For information on Gabburri see L. 2818, L. Suppl. 2992b. See also the preface to the Sotheby's sale catalogue of 1957 and Chris Fischer in the Rotterdam catalogue of 1990, pp. 12-17. Fischer postulates that the landscape drawings were not part of the 505 Bartolommeo drawings purchased by Gabburri from the Convent of Santa Caterina in Florence, but instead came from another source as they were not at that time recognized to be by Bartolommeo. This is credible as Lorenzo di Credi's inventory of the drawings given to Fra Paolino da Pistoia lists 830 loose sheets and 12 sketchbooks, but misses out 66 of the separate landscape drawings.
William Kent, London, Purchased from the heirs of Gabburri, 1742, Sold to private collector in England by 1768. Chris Fischer in the Rotterdam catalogue, 1990, p. 15, notes that some of the landscapes were copied by Robert Surtees, an amateur artist from Durham, in drawings dated 1768 and sold at Christie's in London on March 18, 1980, lot no. 6.The provenance identification of William Kent has been the subject of some dispute. Please see the article by John Fleming, "Mr. Kent, Art Dealer, and the Fra Bartolommeo Drawings," "The Connoisseur," vol. CXLI, 1958, p. 227. At the time of the 1957 sale it was assumed that the drawings were owned by William Kent, the architect. Fleming, however, noted that was far more likely that the works were obtained by his namesake, a dealer, who made extensive purchases in Italy for a number of English clients.
Private Collector, Ireland, Purchase, 1925, Sold at Sotheby's, London, 1957. Sale, November 20, 1957, lot no. 4, repr. The private collector was identified as Sir Thomas Phillipps (subsequently his heirs) in "An Exhibition of Old Master Drawings," New York/London (Richard Day), 1988, under no. 8.
Private Collector, England, Probably acquired from William Kent, 1768, Unknown, 1925. Probably passed through a number of private Eng. collections until 1925
Sotheby's, London, Sold as "The Property of a Gentleman", sold to P. & D. Colnaghi, 1957. Sale, November 20, 1957, lot 4, repr.
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., London, sold to Philip and Frances L. Hofer, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1958; bequest of Frances L. Hofer, 1979.54.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Frances L. Hofer

Accession Year

1979

Object Number

1979.54

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Catalogue of the Drawings of Landscapes and Trees by Fra Bartolommeo, auct. cat., Sotheby's (London, England, November 20, 1957), lot 4, p. vii; repr. no. 4, pp. 9-10
• Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, exh. cat., P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd. (London, England, June 17, 1958 - July 17, 1958), cat. no. 13, recto repr.
• Eunice Williams, Master Drawings and Watercolors: The Hofer Collection, exh. cat., ed. Konrad Oberhuber and William W. Robinson, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, 1984), cat. no. 2, pp. 16-17, and p. 10; repr. p. 76, pl. 2 (recto and verso)
• Agnes Mongan, Konrad Oberhuber, and Jonathan Bober, The Famous Italian Drawings at the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Silvana Editoriale (Milan, Italy, 1988), cat. no. 18, n.p., and pp. 13, 26 and 27, repr. color
• Chris Fischer, "Fra Bartolommeo's Landscape Drawings", Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz (1989), 33. Bd., H. 2/3, pp. 301-342, pp. 325-326, 329-330, repr. p. 330 as no. 38
• Albert Jan Elen, Italian Late-Medieval and Renaissance Drawing-Books from Giovannino de'Grassi to Palma Giovane: A Codicological Approach, Privately Published (Leiden, 1995), under cat. no. 46, pp. 280 and 281
• Ernst-Gerhard Güse and Alexander Perrig, Zeichnungen aus der Toskana: Das Zeitalter Michelangelos, exh. cat., Saarland Museum and Prestel-Verlag (Saarbrücken and Munich/New York, 1997), p. 296 (n. 1 under note section for cat. no. 12)
• Joachim Jacoby, ed., Raffael bis Tizian: Italienische Zeichnungen aus dem Städel Museum, exh. cat., Michael Imhof-Verlag (Petersberg, Hessen, 2014), p. 65, p. 66 n. 10

Exhibition History

• Exhibition of Old Master Drawings, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., London, 06/17/1958 - 07/17/1958
• Master Drawings and Watercolors: The Hofer Collection, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, 04/15/1984 - 07/07/1984; Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/05/1984 - 11/29/1984
• 32Q: 2540 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 03/18/2015
• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/26/2018 - 04/08/2018

Subjects and Contexts

• Google Art Project

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