(Pieve di Cadore 1485/88 – 1576 Venice), workshop of
‘Sacra conversazione’: The Virgin and Child with Saints Stephen, Jerome, Maurice, further two donors, oil on canvas, 122 x 168 cm, unframed

Provenance: Collection of the banker Freiherr von Bethmann, Königstein near Frankfurt; From 1925, Carl Spaeth, Frankfurt; the latter’s widow, married to Count Görtz, Frankfurt; West German Private Collection.

We are grateful to Dr. Silvia Ferino-Pagden and Wenke Deiters of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna for their assistance in assessing the present painting. There are two known autograph versions of that painting, which are almost identical to the prent composition: one in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Fig. 1) and a second in the Louvre, Paris (Fig. 2); a third version by Titian’s workshop is in Chiswick House, England.

(Comparative Literature: Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, Der späte Tizian, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2007/8, and Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice / Venezia 2008, pp. 141–47; Tiziano, L’Opera completa, Rizzoli Editore, Classici dell’Arte, 1978, pls. / tav. 102/3) All three compositons lack the two figures appearing on the left side of the present painting, depicting two donors, one of them as Saint Joseph. The present painting, which is most closely related to Titian’s version in the Louvre, was most probably commissioned by two donors who wanted to have their own portraits included in the composition and was presumably executed by one of Titian’s assistants. Judging from the liberal manner of painting and the subdued (‘Mannerist’) colours, it was painted some thirty to fifty years after Paris version. An attribution to Palma il Giovane has been suggested.

Provenance: Collection of the banker Freiherr von Bethmann, Königstein near Frankfurt; From 1925, Carl Spaeth, Frankfurt; the latter’s widow, married to Count Görtz, Frankfurt; West German Private Collection. We are grateful to Dr. Silvia Ferino-Pagde