Giovanni Antonio Pordenone

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Giovanni Antonio Pordenone

1484?-1539

Conversion of Saul

ca. 1532-1535

Pen and brown ink and wash, with white opaque watercolor, over black chalk, on blue laid paper, faded to green gray.

10 3/4 x 16 1/8 inches (272 x 410 mm)

Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in 1909.

I, 70

Notes:

Watermark: none.
This drawing is related to a lost fresco painted by Pordenone on the facade of Palazzo d'Anna in Venice. That the prodigious energy of Pordenone's work impressed Tintoretto is clear, for the latter's own version of the Conversion of St. Paul (National Gallery of Art, Washington) was based on the composition. Pordenone's burly figures reappear throughout the work of the young Tintoretto, and if Tintoretto was the contrarian character painted by his early biographers, an overt reference or homage to Pordenone--who sought to position himself as the alternative to Titian in the Venetian art world of the 1530s--may have been a gesture with both stylistic and ideological significance. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawing in Tintoretto's Venice"

Inscription:

Inscribed on fragment of verso of mount (now in departmental file), in pen and brown ink, presumably by Robinson, "Pordenone/ Jabach/ Esadaile 1802/ J Thane/ Spread- sold at xtie [Christie's] ap[ri]l 1898/ JC Robinson 1898".

Provenance:

Everhard Jabach (1610-1695; his inventory folio 82 no. 18 "Pordenone - La conversion de St Paul à la plume lavé et haussé sur papier bleu long de 18 et haut de 12 3/4 pouces 12 livres 10 sols"), Paris; Gerhard Michael Jabach (d. 1753), Livorno; his sale, Amsterdam, 16 October 1753, lot 275 3 fl. bought by Oudaan; William Esdaile (1758-1837; Lugt 2617), London and Teddington, Middlesex; probably his sale, Christie's, London, 20 June 1840, lot 444, bought by Foster; John Thane (1782-1846; according to Robinson's inscription), London; John William Spread (1807-1897), Pembridge Crescent, London; his sale, London, Christie's, 27-29 April 1898, lot 123, as from the De Sarbacs and Esdaile Collections, bought by Gribble; acquired that year by Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913; Lugt 1433; according to inscription on old mount), Edinburgh and London; Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), London and Florence; from whom purchased in London in 1909 by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), New York; J. P. Morgan, Jr., (1867-1943), New York.

Associated names:

Jabach, Everhard, 1618-1695, former owner.
Jabach, Gerhard Michael, former owner.
Esdaile, William, 1758-1837, former owner.
Thane, John, 1748-1818, former owner.
Spread, John William, 1807-1897, former owner.
Robinson, J. C. (John Charles), Sir, 1824-1913, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.

Bibliography:

Rhoda Eitel-Porter and and John Marciari, Italian Renaissance Drawings at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 2019, no. 62.
John Marciari, Drawing in Tintoretto's Venice, New York, 2018, no. 3, fig. 10, repr.
Selected references: Fairfax Murray 1905-12, 1: no. 70; Fröhlich-Bum 1925, 85-90; Tietze and Tietze-Conrat 1944, 1:239; Popham and Wilde 1949, under no. 749; New York 1965-66, no. 53; Fiocco 1969, 1:102, 107, 154; Cohen 1972, 128-29; Cohen 1973, 248; Cohen 1975, 25, 31, 34; Cohen 1980, 20, 102-4; New York 1981, no. 14; Furlan 1988, no. D61; Cohen 1996, 342-48, 350; Nichols 1999, 30; Rearick 2001, 104; Trent 2006, no. 77; Munich 2008-9, no. 11; New York and Washington 2018-19, 29-31, no. 3.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, I, 70, repr.
100 Master drawings from the Morgan Library & Museum. München : Hirmer, 2008, no. 11, repr. [Rhoda Eitel-Porter]

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Pordenone, Giovanni Antonio

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