museums and institutions:
Attributed works:
84. Historiated initial 'O'; cutting from a choir-book. Italian, Florentine school. Early fifteenth century. Vellum, 16.9 by 16.7 cm. The initial contains a sainted Pope (St Gregory?). The figure and decoration letter recall the work of Silvestro dei Gherarducci at the Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence. Provenance: J. H. Fitzhenry. Sir Thomas Merton. Purchased from the Leverton Harris and University Purchase Funds.
Attributed works:
86. Leda and the swan, by Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi (1658-1740). Bronze, height 34.5 cm. Given by John Winter, Esq., together with a Ganymede and the eagle by the same artist, in memory of his father, Carl Winter, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum (1946-1965). From the collection of Prince Lodovico Trivulzio and from the Luccardi Collection, Milan. See C. LUCCARDI and A. MINGHETTI: The Luccardi Collection of Milan, Milan, ill. pl. XXXVIII, attributed to Falconet. For the wax model for the bronze, see K. LANKHEIT: Die Modellsammlung der Porzellanmanufaktur Doccia, Munich [1982], p.119, No.3, ill. pl. 115.
Attributed works:
88. Cabinet, by George Bullock (d. 1818). c. 1817. Larchwood and ebony with brass mounts and boulle-work, the top of Glen Tilt marble, 87.2 by 120.4 by 46 cm. It is perhaps the piece mentioned in the Blair Castle accounts on 12th July 1817, of which the materials are identical, but the width (188 cm) somewhat larger. A design in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, discovered by Clive Wainwright, shows the pattern of the boulle-work on the doors of the cabinet. It is inscribed 'Mrs. Barrows/Oak Book Commode/Pubd. Augt 1816'. Purchased from the Gow Fund with a contribution from the National Art Collections Fund and Grant-in-Aid from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Attributed works:
89. Rebecca and Eliezer at the well, by Nicolas Poussin. The painting appears to be of the 1660s. 96.5 by 138 cm. Bought from the Gow Fund and the University Purchase Fund with contributions from the National Art-Collections Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, The Esmeé Fairbairn Trust, The American Friends of Cambridge University, The Goldsmiths' Company, The Grocers' Company, Ciba-Geigy Plastics and with a number of private donations encouraged by the Fitzwilliam Museum Trust.
Attributed works:
90. Allen Smith contemplating by the Arno, Florence, by François-Xavier Fabre. Signed and dated on the Corinthian capital, lower right: 'F. X. Fabri/Florentiae 1797'. Allen Smith must have been a man of some means as, when travelling in Italy he commissioned five paintings from Fabre, mentioned in a letter from the Countess of Albany post-marked 12th July 1797. These included two portraits, of which the second was a life-size painting of Smith amid the ruins of ancient Rome. A letter from Fabre to Lord Holland (24th August 1797) gives full credit for composition to Smith. Given by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum in celebration of their seventy-fifth anniversary, with the aid of a special gift from the Directors of Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, and contributions from the National Art-Collections Fund, the Cunliffe, Perceval and University Purchase Funds.
Attributed works:
91. Study of a Head of a Youth, by Ludovico Cardi, Called Il Cigoli. Oil on Paper, Laid down on Canvas, 44.3 by 36.4 cm. A Study for The Emperor Heraclius Bringing Back the True Cross to Jerusalem, Dated 1594, in S. Marco, Florence. Bought from the Gow Fund, with a Contribution from the National Art-Collections Fund.
Attributed works:
93. The Last Communion of St Francis of Assisi, by Sir Peter Paul Rubens. Oil on Oak Panel, 104 by 74.5 cm. Modello for Rubens's Altar-Piece Painted for Jasper Charles for the Church of the Recollects at Antwerp, Now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp. The Finished Painting, Which Shows Significant Differences Particularly in the Upper Zone, Was Paid for on 17th May 1619. Given by Edward Speelman.
Attributed works:
94. The Holy Family on the return from Egypt meets the Infant St John, by Ludovico Carracci. Tempera on canvas, 52.7 by 66 cm. Michael Jaffé, to whom the attribution to Ludovico Carracci of this well-preserved guazzo from the celebrated collection of the Marques del Carpio, Governor of Naples, is due, has suggested a date in the 1580s, and points out how the landscape background anticipates Guercino. Given by the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum with a contribution from the Victoria and Albert Museum Grant-in-Aid.
Attributed works:
95. The month of June, by Giuseppe Zocchi. Oil on paper, laid down on canvas, 33.6 by 43.9 cm. A modelletto for Francesco Bartolozzi's print of a corresponding size in etching and engraving. The Bartolozzi Months, reversing Zocchi's compositions, were published at Wagner's in Venice in 1761. Giugno is lettered: 'bello e il veder, quando nel Cancro e il Sole'. Bought from the Gow Fund, with a contribution from the Victoria and Albert Museum Grant-in-Aid.
Non-western art unattributed:
87. Wine Bottle. Korean, Koryŏ Dynasty, Early Twelfth Century. Stoneware with Celadon Glaze, Height 28.6 cm. Given by Mr and Mrs G. St G. M. Gompertz. See Korean and Chinese Ceramics, Exh. cat., Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 24th February-28th March 1975, p.35, No.76, ill. on Front Cover.
Western art unattributed:
82. 'Oriental' Eros Leaning on Herm. Tarentine (?), Late Third Century BC. Terracotta, Height 18.5 cm. Both Statuettes Are from the Chesterman Collection, Acquired in Its Entirety by the Museum.
Western art unattributed:
83. Standing Goddess (Persephone?). Corinthian, Mid-Fifth Century BC. Terracotta, Height 17.5 cm. Both Statuettes Are from the Chesterman Collection, Acquired in Its Entirety by the Museum.
Western art unattributed:
85. Gospel book, in Latin, with Anglo-Saxon glosses. West France (Brittany?). Ninth-tenth century. Vellum, 27 by 19 cm. Fol. 14, a full-page miniature, shows Eusebius wearing blue robes, surrounded by the symbols of the Four Evangelists, each holding a lectern with an open book. Purchased by the Marlay, Perceval, Cunliffe and University Purchase Funds, with the aid of the Victoria and Albert Museum Grant-in-Aid, and the National Heritage Memorial Funds, and with a contribution by Dr G. D. S. Henderson in memory of Francis Wormald.
Western art unattributed:
92. Elizabeth Vernon, Countess of Southampton. Anonymous English School. c. 1603. 188 by 109 cm. Elizabeth Vernon, born in 1573, was one of Elizabeth I's Maids of Honour. She married in secrecy Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton, the intimate of Shakespeare. Two miniatures of her husband, by Nicholas Hilliard and Peter Oliver, are in the Museum's collection. The painting hangs near the Van Dyck portrait of her daughter-in-law, Rachel de Ruvigny (reproduced in the October 1984 issue of this Magazine, p.603). Bought from the Perceval Fund with contributions from the National-Art Collections Fund and the Victoria and Albert Museum Grant-in-Aid.
