Confraternity Altarpiece: Madonna of the Rosary

Artist Bernardino Lanino Italian, Vercelli or Mortara circa 1509–1582/1583 Vercelli, active in Piedmont and Lombardy

Date1552

MediumOil on panel

Dimensions92 3/8 x 60 1/2 in. (234.6 x 153.7 cm)
Frame: 115 x 83 in. (292.1 x 210.8 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

Object numberGL.60.17.45

On View

Not on view

Label Text
The rosaries held by the female donors, the scattered roses (symbols of the rosary), and the presence of numerous Dominican saints indicate that the altarpiece must have been painted for a church, monastery, or lay organization (confraternity) of the Dominican Order. Roman Catholics use rosaries to recite meditational prayers on events from the life of the Virgin. Dominicans attributed the invention of the rosary to St. Dominic (1170–1221), founder of their order. The Virgin was said to have appeared to him in a vision and presented him with a string of beads, each bead symbolizing a sorrow and joy of her life, which Dominic called “Our Lady’s crown of roses.”

A composition depicting the Madonna and Child with saints, in which the sacred figures are united by some common action, is known as a sacra conversazione (holy conversation). The six Dominican saints standing behind the kneeling donors can be identified as Dominic, holding lilies, symbols of chastity, and a model of a church; Antonio Pierozzi of Florence, emptying a money bag, symbolic of his charity; Thomas Aquinas, wearing a star on his breast and holding a lily and a book; Vincent Ferrer, holding a flaming heart, representing his religious zeal and fiery preaching; Peter Martyr, his head cleft with a blade, holding a martyr’s palm; and Catherine of Siena, holding a crucifix and lilies and wearing the crown of thorns Christ gave her in a vision.

ProvenanceCompleted in 1552 for the chapel of a confraternity dedicated to the Rosary, possibly in the church of San Paolo, Vercelli; Edward Solly (1776–1844), London; [Christie’s, London, May 8, 1847, lot 25, sold to Durrell] [1]; Mrs. Lyne-Stephens (née Yolande Duvernay; 1813–1894), Lynford Hall, Norfolk and Paris [2]; [Christie’s, London, May 11, 1895, lot 317, sold to Shepherd] [3]; Sir Frederick Lucas Cook (1844–1920) 2d bt., Doughty House, Long Gallery, no. 5, Richmond, Surrey, 1895 [4]; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook (1868–1939), 3d bt., Doughty House, at least until 1932; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. (1907-1978), Doughty House and Cothay Manor, Somerset, presumably sold after 1939; [Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955), Rome-Florence, 1948] [5]; sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation on 11 July 1948; gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art, December 9, 1961.

[1] Shapley, vol. 2, p. 147 incorrectly identifies it as lot 31. Sale price from Waterhouse annotation of 1895 sale catalogue at GRI.

[2] Married to Stephens Lyne Stephens.

[3] Annotated copy of catalogue at GRI: original annotation cites price and Shepherd; Waterhouse added “for Cook Coll. Richmond.”

[4] Annotated copy of catalogue at GRI: original annotation cites price and Shepherd; Waterhouse added “for Cook Coll. Richmond.”

[5] Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart, London, 1932, p. 30, no. 116 (5) as B. Lanini.

Published ReferencesChristie, Manson & Woods, Ltd., London: May 8, 1847, lot 31.

Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd., London: May 11, 1895, lot 31

Bernhard Berenson, Northern Italian Painters of the Rennaisance (London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), 243.

Sir Frederick Cook, Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond (London: William Heinemann, 1907), cat. no. 5.

Tancred Borenius, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House in the Collection of Sir Francis Cook, Bt., Vol. 1 (London: William Heinemann, 1913), cat. no. 116, illus. pl. 15.

Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, Vol. 2 (London: 1914), 642.

Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana IX. La Pittura del Cinquecento, Part II, Vol. 9, pt. 2 (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1926), 882, illus. 881, fig. 710.

I. Kunze, entry in Allgemienes Lexicon der Bildenden Künstler (Becker Felix, und Ulrich Theime), Vol. 2 (Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1928), 355-56.

Bernhard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance ( Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1932), 277.

Maurice Brockwell, Abridged Catalogue of Paintings at Doughty House Richmond, Surrey in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart (London: William Heinemann, 1932), cat. no. 116.

Bernhard Berenson, Pitture Italiane del Rinascimento (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1936), 274.

Anna Maria Brizio, La Pittura in Piemonte dall'età Romanica al Cinquecento (Torino: G.B. Paravia, 193[6?]), 231.

W. E. Suida, Bollettino della Societa Piemontese di Archeologia e di Belli Arte, 8-11 (1954-57), 91.

The Samuel H. Kress Collection (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1960), 92, illus. (color) 93.

Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XV - XVI Century, Vol. 2 (London: The Phaidon Press, 1968), 147-48, illus. fig. 360.

Giovanna Galante Garrone, ed., Gaudenzio Ferrari e la sua scuola, I cartoni cinquescenteschi dell'Accademia Albertina, (exhibition catalogue) (Turin: Accademia Albertina de Belle Arti, 1982), 133, 134, 149-51, illus. 150 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 190.

Giorio Tibaldeschi, "Spigolature Su Bernardino Lanino," Bollettino Storico Vercellese no.1 (1985), 39, 40-41, 46, note 37, 47, notes 47-52.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 176.

David Steel, entry for Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Donors, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 115, 128, illus. (color) 128.

Old Master Drawings & Oil Sketches (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Pandora Old Masters, 2000), cat no. 2, detail (b-w).

David Steel, entry for Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Donors, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 270, illus. (color) 271.

Lyle Humphrey, "Saul Among the Prophets: W.R. Valentiner, Robert L. Humber, Carl W. Hamilton, and the Italian Collection at the NCMA," Lisandra Estevez, ed., Collecting Early Modern Art (1400-1800) in the U.S. South (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021), 39.Exhibition HistoryLondon, The Burlington Fine Arts Club, "Lombard Exhibition," 1899, cat. notes by Sir Herbert Cook.

London, The Royal Academy of Art, "Exhibition of Works by Old Masters," Winter 1902, cat. no. 153.

Vercelli, Italy, Borgogna Museum, "Gaudenzio Ferrari," 1956, 81, 141-42.
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