Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume 3 (of 3) / Illustrating the Arms, Arts, and Literature of Italy, from 1440 To 1630

by James Dennistoun

25. The Madonna, large on canvas. Not found.

26. St. Francis, large, on canvas; not found. None of these three pictures appear in the other lists.

The Bassani.

27. A Supper. This was, doubtless, the Cenacolo, No. 446 in the Pitti Gallery, assigned to Leandro Bassano.

28, 29. The building and entering of the Ark. These are, probably, the companion pictures in the corridor of the Uffizi, which seem poor copies, though ascribed to Francesco. Of the latter, representing the Deluge, there is on the same wall a large and fine replica with his name, and a picture of animals entering the ark with the name of Jacopo.

30. Composition of Figures and Animals. It is stated by the Pesaro list to have come from the chapel in the lower gardens of that city, and may have been the large picture of the Rich Man and Lazarus, now in the corridor of the Uffizi, where it bears the name of Francesco.

31-34. Four Pictures. As there are fourteen pictures of the Bassani in the Uffizi, and five in the Pitti, besides those noticed above, and several portraits, it would be idle to attempt identifying these four. All these eight works of this family are noted in the Pesaro list, but omitted in Venturi's.

Baroccio.

35. Portrait of S.A.S. This is probably to be read Sua Altezza Serenissima Francesco Maria II., the last Duke of Urbino, now an ornament of the Tribune. It is a half-length on canvas, in armour richly inlaid in steel and gold, his helmet by his side and a scarf across his shoulder, being, as we learn from the Pesaro list, the uniform in which he returned from his naval expedition; a circumstance which fixes the date in 1572, when the Duke was in his twenty-third, and the painter in his forty-fourth, year. Nothing can surpass the fluid harmony and pellucid colouring of this picture, equally remarkable for breadth and high finish, but the feeble design apparent in the arms renders it impossible to give by the burin a favourable impression of its merit. I have therefore preferred engraving for this work a much less brilliant portrait obtained by me at Pesaro. A repetition of the Tribune picture, less clear but still more charming, graces the select gallery of Baron Camuccini at Rome.