Bernardino Licinio

Mrs. C.E. Danforth;

By whom bequeathed to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1919 (inv. no. 19.43);

By whom deaccessioned ("Property of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts"), New York, Sotheby's, 11 October 1990, lot 9;

Where acquired by Colnaghi, London;

With Cura Antiques, London;

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 21 May 1998, lot 206;

Where acquired by Giovanni Sarti, Paris, and until at least 2000;

Anonymous sale, Paris, Millon et Associés, 9 December 2005, lot 80;

With Giovanni Sarti, Paris;

From whom acquired by a private collector;

From whom acquired, via private sale, Sotheby's, London, 2012.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Forty-Fourth Annual Report for the Year 1919, Boston 1919, p. 117 (as Venetian School, 16th century);

"Acquisitions May 1 to July 17, 1919," in Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin 17 (February 1919), p. 47 (as Venetian School, 16th century);

W.G. Constable, Summary Catalogue of European Paintings, Boston 1955, p. 38 (as Bernardino Licinio);

F. Zeri and B. Frederickson, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge 1972, pp. 105, 564;

L. Vertova, "Bernardino Licinio," in I Pittori Bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo, Il Cinquecento, vol. I, Bergamo 1975, p. 413, cat. no. 15, reproduced p. 445, fig. 2;

A.R. Murphy, European Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, An Illustrated Summary Catalogue, Boston 1985, pp. 168, 346, reproduced;

G. Briganti, La pittura in Italia, Il Cinquecento, Milan 1992, vol. II, p. 748;

Primitifs et maniéristes italiens (1370-1570), exhibition catalogue, Paris 2000, pp. 156-161, cat. no. 19, reproduced;

P. Joannides, Titian to 1518, The Assumption of Genius, New Haven and London 2001, pp. 96-97, 315 note 15, reproduced fig. 84;

K. Tsoumis, "Bernardino Licinio: Portraiture, Kinship, and Community in Renaissance Venice," Ph.D. diss., University of Toronto 2013, pp. 8, 234, reproduced fig. 7.

San Diego, Timken Museum of Art, on loan, June - September 2017.

In this signed and dated devotional panel, Bernardino Licinio offers a tender and intimate portrayal of the Holy Family. The pose of the Madonna, who gently cradles the Christ Child as he reaches affectionately toward her, draws inspiration from Titian’s Madonna and Child in a Landscape of circa 1507 in the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo (inv. no. 81LC00232). Licinio enriches the composition by including a white-haired Saint Joseph, leaning thoughtfully on a staff, and a youthful Saint John the Baptist, who extends a reed cross toward his infant cousin. The painting is distinguished by its warm, saturated tones and a sensitive interplay of gestures and gazes, hallmarks of Licinio’s style and of the broader Venetian tradition.