Master Paintings Part II

Master Paintings Part II

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 409. Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife.

Bonifazio de' Pitati, called Bonifazio Veronese

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

Auction Closed

February 6, 08:57 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Bonifazio de' Pitati, called Bonifazio Veronese

Verona 1487 - 1553 Venice

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife


oil on canvas

canvas: 10 ¾ by 34 ½ in.; 27.3 by 87.6 cm

framed: 17 ¼ by 42 in.; 43.8 by 106.7 cm

Palazzo Pisani, Santo Stefano, Venice, by 1809;

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, 7 June 1978, lot 310;

Where acquired Daniel M. Friedenberg, New York;

Thence by descent to Russel Friedenberg;

From whom acquired by the present owner, 2014.

G. Pavanello, Gli Inventari di Pietro Edwards nella Biblioteca del Seminario Patriarcale di Venezia, Venice 2006, pp. 132, 140 (as no. 10 in Pietro Edwards’ 1809 inventory of the Palazzo Pisani: “Giuseppe che fugge dalla moglie di Pitifarre”);

P. Cottrell and P. Humfrey, Bonifacio de’ Pitati, Venice 2021, pp. 273, 401-402, cat. no. 166h, reproduced.

Bonifacio de' Pitati, an influential figure of the Venetian Renaissance, cinematically illustrates the biblical episode of Joseph fleeing the advances of Potiphar’s wife. Executed circa 1545–1550, this painting was recorded in the Venetian Palazzo Pisani in 1802, and belongs to a series of nine related canvases.1 These works, which likely formed a continuous frieze below the cornice of a room, may have originally been commissioned by the patrician Pisani family, to whom they still belonged in the early-nineteenth century. 


The series depicts a variety of poetic, historical, and biblical scenes, drawing inspiration from Virgil, Livy, Boccaccio, and the Old Testament. Despite their seemingly disparate sources, the subjects of the nine paintings are unified by mutual themes of family, lineage, and virtue, all of which are particularly well-suited for the decoration of a domestic interior.


1 P. Cottrell and P. Humfrey 2021, pp. 401-402, cat. nos. 166a-166i.