This painting is first documented in the 1603 inventory of the prestigious Roman collection of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, alongside another painting of the same subject and by the same artist: Tiziano Vecellio. Both paintings passed by inheritance into the Doria Pamphilij Gallery, but whereas the better version remained in the collection (and still resides there today), the Simon painting was sold by the Doria family in the late eighteenth century. It has been called the best workshop replica of the Doria original. Why two paintings of the same style and subject came to be owned by the same family for almost two hundred years has never been established.
Titian was known to have a large, bustling workshop, where students duplicated a number of his most popular compositions; some paintings were finished or corrected by Titian himself, allowing them to be sold as the work of the master. In this case, at least four versions of the Doria original (which was executed around 1515) are known to have been made.
Details
- Artist Name: Titian (Italian, c.1487/90-1576)
- Title: Salome with the Head of John the Baptist
- Date: 16th century
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 34 x 29 in. (86.4 x 73.7 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1965.1.066.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Doria-Pamphili, Palace Doria, from the Guarda Roba, Rome, by 1794.
William Young Ottley (sale, London, 24 January 1801, lot 45);
William Young Ottley (sale, London, Christie’s, 16 May 1801, lot 13, for ₤147, as Titian, The Daughter of Herodias) to;
Lord D. Private, who possibly bought in.
Sir Richard Sullivan (d. 1806) (sale, London, Christie’s, 9 April 1808, lot 14, for £252 as Titian, The Daughter of Herodias with the Head of St. John, from the Doria collection);
Sir Richard Sullivan, Ember Court, Thames Ditton (sale, London, Christie’s, 18 June 1859, lot 17, as Titian, The Daughter of Herodias, from the Doria collection).
George A. F. Cavendish Bentinck, London and Brownsea Island (sale, London, Christie’s, 11 July 1891, lot 779, as Giorgione, Herodias, with the head of St. John the Baptist, and an attendant, a replica of the picture in the Borghese Gallery, from the Novar Collection).
Charles Fairfax Murray.
Charles Butler, 1891.
Robert H. (1850-1929) and Evelyn Holford Benson, London, by at least 1894, sold 1 June 1927 to;
[Duveen Bros., New York, stock no. 29351, on loan 1938 to];
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, returned before 27 May 1940 to;
[Duveen Bros., Paris, shipped after 27 May 1940 to];
[Duveen, Bros., New York, stock no. 30053, sold 1965 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Venetian Tradition
- Cleveland Museum of Art, 1956 to
[on loan]
- Royal Palace, Belgrade, 1938 to 1940
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School
- London, Royal Academy, 1910-01-03 to 1910-03-12
Konstens Venedig: Utställning anordnad med anledning av Konung Gustaf VI Adolf åttioårsdag
- Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, 1962-10-20 to 1963-02-10
The Venetian School: Pictures by Titian and His Contemporaries
- Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1914 to 1915
Loan Exhibition of the Benson Collection of Old Italian Masters
- Manchester, City Art Gallery, 1927-04-27 to 1927-07-30
Exhibition of Venetian Art
- London, New Gallery, 1894 to 1895
Lock, Stock and Barrel: Norton Simon's Purchase of Duveen Brothers Gallery
- Norton Simon Museum, 2014-10-24 to 2015-02-16
- Crowe, Joseph Archer and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in North Italy, p. 178
- Catalogue of Italian Pictures at 16, South Street, Park Lane, London and Buckhurst in Sussex Collected by Robert and Evelyn Benson,
- Tietze, Hans, Tizian, p. 308
- Berenson, The Study and Criticism of Art, p. 91
- Cust, L., Les Arts, p. 14
- Fischel, O., Tizian, p. 32
- Gronau, G., Gazette des Beaux-Arts, p. 429
- Buchanan, William, Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution, 1824, p. 23
- Crowe, Joseph Archer and Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in North Italy, 1912,
- Suida, Wilhelm, Titian, 1935, p. 158
- Richter, George M., Giorgio da Castelfranco, 1937, p. 228
- Valcanover, Francesco, Tutta la pittura di Tiziano, 1960,
- Wethey, Harold E., The Paintings of Titian: Complete Edition, 1969,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. D55 p. 445
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