Bernardino Licinio

Pourtalès collection;
From whom acquired by Ivor Churchill Guest, 1^st Viscount Wimborne, Canford Manor, Dorset;
His sale, London, Christie's, 9 March 1923, lot 4, as by Paris Bordone, to Buttery;
With Goudstikker, Amsterdam, November 1924;
Dr. Gustav Arens, Vienna;
Lise Haas (née Arens), Vienna;
Confiscated and allocated to the Fuehrermuseum in Linz (as by Palma Vecchio);
Restituted May 1948 (MCCP inventory no. 9029);
Thence by descent to the present owner.

 

The Hague, Pulchri Studio, Schilderkundig Genootschap, November 1924, no. 91 (as by Palma Vecchio);
San Francisco, Palace of the Legion of Honor, by 1949.

J. Goudstikker, Schilderkundig Genootschap, exhibition catalogue, The Hague 1924, cat. no. 91, reproduced no. 91 (as by Palma Vecchio);
L. Vertova, "Bernardo Licinio," in I Pittori Bergamaschi: il Cinquecento I, Bergamo 1975, pp. 414-5, cat. no. 24, reproduced p. 467, plate 2;
S. Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens, Vienna 2003, p. 93, inv. no. 8 (as by Palma Vecchio).

 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work is painted on a large panel made from two large pieces of wood which are joined horizontally through the center. The panel is more or less flat. The paint layer seems to be quite dirty yet it is stable. If the picture were to be cleaned, the palette would brighten noticeably and while retouches would be removed during this process, it is more than likely that it is not remotely excessive. There is a diagonal scratch running through the middle finger of the woman's right hand but the remainders of the restorations are confined to small isolated losses and cracks here and there, none of which are off-putting or remarkable. The only area of weakness to the paint layer is in the beard of the male figure where some abrasion seems to have occurred. The condition of this painting is particularly good and it will respond well to restoration.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This large and impressive panel exemplifies a genre of painting prevalent in Venice in the first half of the 16^th century; portraits of Belle Donne, young and usually fair-haired women in various states of dress and undress, were meant as erotic ideals of female beauty, and were painted by artists as important as Titian, Giorgione and Palma Vecchio.  Before these, such a direct approach to the female body, particularly when nude or semi-nude, was possible only through the context of an established narrative, for example the myths of Venus.  Traditionally it was thought that the emergence of these Belle Donne coincided in Venice with the rise of the courtesan class who, unbound by the moral constraints of society, enjoyed a freedom denied other women.  Recent scholarship, however, challenges this discourse, arguing instead that these paintings were commissioned as wedding presents for the initiation and instruction of a bride.¹  Sylvia Ferino-Pagden writes that the Belle Donne, echoing the canonised beauty of Titian's Flora, in the Uffizi, Florence and Palma Vecchio's Young Woman in Profile, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, present perfected, poetical beauty, not only charming to the viewer but conveying also a sensuality now expected of the modern wife.²  According to Ferino-Pagden, the provocative glance and bared breast are not the brazen gestures of a courtesan but the coquettish self-offering of a demure and virtuous young bride.³ 

Whatever the general intention of the genre, the scene depicted here is clearly one of seduction.  The woman turns her face away while glancing back with a coy expression to her suitor.  He, in response, places his right hand on her wrist and his left on his chest in gesture of imploring passion.  The beguiling woman is placed before a sumptuous, deep red drapery, highlighting the pink hues in her cheek and décolletage.  Her rich green robe and fine white undershirt fall back to reveal her shoulders and breast, her waving hair flowing across the bare flesh, all an allusion to her invitation. The indulgence of the lady surrounded by luxurious fabrics is contrasted beautifully with the freshness of the landscape behind her lover and the tender touch linking the two figures, conveying the pair's delight in courtship.

The treatment of the young woman shows the distinct influence of Palma Vecchio, bearing strong resemblance to his Flora, in the National Gallery, London, with the open shift with blue ribbon, the green robe and the golden curls about her bare shoulders.⁴  It is also strikingly similar to Licinio's Courtesan with a Mirror, now in the Salamon collection, Pavia; the poses in the two works are almost identical, the raised right arm, resting on an object, the left arm crooked with fingers intertwined in the folds of the robe, the head tilting down and to her right with a side glance to her left.⁵  In addition, their undershirts with the gathered border in a plunging "v," the consecutively undulating waves of the hair and the choice of colors are each remarkably similar, signaling the authorship of Bernadino Licinio and a dating not later than 1520.⁶  The features of her male lover, however, are more naturalistic, the eyebrows, eyelids and nose being less stylized and the tight auburn curls more convincing.  The slight shift in treatment of the male betrays the influence of Titian which pervaded Licinio's work from the 1520s to 1530s.

The present painting once formed part of the famed collection at Canford Manor, Dorset, home of Ivor Churchill Guest, the second Baron Wimborne, until it was sold at Christie's, London in 1923 as by Paris Bordone.⁷

1.  D.A. Brown and S. Ferino-Pagden, exhibition catalogue, Bellini, Giorgione and Titian and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.,  2006, p. 196.
2.  F. Ilchman, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rivals in Renaissance Venice, Boston 2009, p.104, cat. no. 5, reproduced p.105 and D.A. Brown and S. Ferino-Pagden, op. cit., p. 196, repoduced p. 193, plate 5, respectively.
3.  D.A. Brown and S. Ferino-Pagden, op. cit., p.196.
4.  P. Rylands, Palma Vecchio, Cambridge 1981, cat. no. 66, reproduced.
5.  L. Vertova, "Bernardo Licinio," in I Pittori Bergamaschi: il Cinquecento I, Bergamo 1975, p. 433 cat.  no. 111, reproduced p. 466, plate 5.
6.  Ibid, p. 414 cat. no. 24, reproduced p. 467, plate 2.
7.  Ibid.