Like many artists from the Veneto, in North-Eastern Italy, Catena frequently portrayed The Holy Family seated in an extensive landscape. Such a setting provided the necessary context to their journey, while reflecting the growing taste among painters and patrons for imagery of the landscape. Here, the serene, idealized version of the Venetian landscape has equal weight with the genre-like figures: St. Joseph dozes quietly while the Madonna and Child provide the sole element of psychological interaction as they sit in mutual awareness. The painting is dated after 1510 when Catena’s forms became softer, more ample, and luminous. This change is likely due to the welcome influences of Giovanni Bellini and Titian.
Details
- Artist Name: Vincenzo Catena (Italian, c.1470-1531)
- Title: The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
- Date: after 1510
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: overall: 32 x 43 in. (81.3 x 109.2 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.2008.2.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
James Irvine by 1828, to;
Sir William Forbes Bt., by inheritance to;
Sir John Stuart Hepburn-Forbes, Bart., Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire (sale, London, Rainey, 2 June 1842 to);
Sir John Rushout, (d. 1859), 2nd Baron Northwick, Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (sale, London, Phillips, 26 July 1859, lot 1011, as Jan Bellini, The Reposo of the Holy Family in a Landscape, to);
J. C. W. Sawbridge-Erle-Drax, Olantigh Towers, Wye, Kent (sale, London, Christie's, 28 June 1929, lot 85, as Giovanni Bellini, The Repose in Egypt, to);
[L. Davis for Duveen Bros., London and New York; New York stock no. 29531, sold 1965 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
[on loan]
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1965-11 to
Telling Tales
- Norton Simon Museum, 2006-01-20 to 2006-04-17
[on loan]
- Fullerton Library, 1968-01 to 1970-01
[on loan]
- Detroit Institute of Arts, 1974-06-12 to 1975-10
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1969-04-21 to 1972-07-07
[on loan]
- Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1968-04-01 to 1968-10-31
The Expressive Body: Memory, Devotion, Desire (1400-1750)
- Norton Simon Museum, 2021-10-15 to 2022-03-07
Lock, Stock and Barrel: Norton Simon's Purchase of Duveen Brothers Gallery
- Norton Simon Museum, 2014-10-24 to 2015-02-16
- Gamba, Carlo, Giovanni Bellini, pp. 175, 193
- Heinemann, Fritz, Giovanni Bellini e i Belliniani, no. 101b
- Marle, Raimond van, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, p. 398
- Dussler, Luitpold, Giovanni Bellini, p. 71
- Munsterberg, H., Arts, p. 64
- La Farge, Henry, Art News, p. 12
- Ridolfi, C., Le Maraviglie dell'arte (1646), 1835, p. 97
- Waagen, Gustav, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 1854, p. 201
- Blanc, C., Histoire des peintures de toutes les écoles, 1868, p. 16
- Carlo Ridolfi's Le Maraviglie dell'Arte (1646), 1914, p. 73
- Robertson, Giles, Vincenzo Catena, 1954, Appendix I, no. 6 p. 73
- Berenson, Bernard, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Venetian School, 1957, p. 33
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 30
- Weston-Lewis, Aidan; and Peter Humfrey, The Age of Titian: Venetian Renaissance Art from Scottish Collections, 2004, fig. 10 p. 15, appendix II, p. 416
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. D12 p. 442
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.