Market for Merchant Princes

Inge Reist is Director of the Center for the History of Collecting at The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library, where her first position was as an Assistant Curator and Lecturer from 1980 to 1983.

• ContentsList of IllustrationsForewordInge ReistIntroduction: Looking Backward: Americans Collect Italian Renaissance ArtDavid Alan BrownPart IThe Lure of Italy: Art and the Market Before Bernard Berenson1James Jackson Jarves and the “Primitive” Art Market in Nineteenth-Century AmericaClay M. Dean2“Modern Connoisseurship” and the Role It Played in Shaping American Collectors’ Taste in Italian Renaissance ArtJaynie Anderson3Discovering the Renaissance: Pierpont Morgan’s Shift to Collecting Italian Old MastersJennifer TonkovichPart IIThe Ubiquitous BB4Boston Collectors in the Wake of “Mrs. Jack”Frederick Ilchman5Henry Walters and Bernard BerensonStanley Mazaroff6Mary Berenson and the Cultivation of American CollectorsTiffany JohnstonPart IIIA Taste of One’s Own: A New American Renaissance7Collecting North Italian Painting at The Metropolitan Museum of ArtAndrea Bayer8Building a Renaissance Collection and Museum After the Gilded Age: The Case of John RinglingVirginia Brilliant9Samuel H. Kress and His Collection of Italian Renaissance Paintings Edgar Peters BowronReferencesList of ContributorsIndex IllustrationsFrontispiece Frontispiece: Duccio di Buoninsegna (ca. 1255–ca. 1319), The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain, 1308–111Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, ca. 1488–1576), Europa, 1559–622Giorgione (1477/78–1510), The Adoration of the Shepherds, 1505–103Exhibition Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 19794Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1430/35–1516), Saint Francis in the Desert, ca. 1475–78 5Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952), [Blowing pinwheels], 18996Tebbs & Knell, Inc., the West Room of Pierpont Morgan’s Library, ca. 19147The “Raphael Room” at Lynnewood Hall, the Widener estate8Kress apartment, decorated in Italian Renaissance style9Kress apartment, decorated in Italian Renaissance style10Larkin Goldsmith Mead (1835–1910), James Jackson Jarves (1818–1888), 188311Antonio del Pollaiuolo (ca. 1432?–1498), Hercules and Deianira, ca. 1475–8012Magdalen Master (active ca. 1265–95), Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Leonard and Peter, ca. 128013Gentile da Fabriano (ca. 1370?–1427), Virgin and Child, ca. 1420–2414Unknown artist, Giovanni Morelli, ca. 1880s15Unknown German artist, Giovanni Morelli in His Undergraduate Lodgings at the University of Munich, ca. 183516Gaetano Zançon (1771–1816), after Lorenzo Lotto (about 1480–1556/7), Portrait of the Physician Giovanni Agostino della Torre and His Son, Niccolò, 1800–1517Lorenzo Lotto (about 1480–1556/7), Giovanni Agostino della Torre and His Son, Niccolò, ca. 1513–1618Lorenzo Lotto (about 1480–1556/7), Giovanni Agostino della Torre and His Son, Niccolò, ca. 1513–1619“The Magnet.” Editorial cartoon by Udo Keppler from Puck, June 21, 191120Scipione Vannutelli (1834–1894), The Cardinal’s Fête, n.d.21The Rotunda. New York, The Morgan Library and Museum22Morgan’s study. New York, The Morgan Library and Museum.23Pierpont Morgan’s study with Lippi panels24Early Italian Room, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum25Piermatteo d’Amelia, ca. 1450–1503/8, Annunciation, ca. 147526Filippino Lippi (1457–1504), The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Margaret, ca. 149527Attributed to Pinturicchio (Bernardino di Betto, ca. 1452–1513), formerly attributed to Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, ca. 1445–1522, Virgin and Child with Saint Jerome, ca. 1475–8028The Walters Art Gallery at the time of the grand opening of the Walters’ new museum in 190929Salle V in the Massarenti Gallery, Rome, about 1900, showing self-portraits attributed to Michelangelo and Raphael30Cartouche with bronze bust of William T. Walters31Sodoma (1477–1549), The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the Infant Saint John the Baptist, ca. 1525–3032Workshop of Bernardo Daddi (ca. 1290–1348), Madonna and Child, ca. 1340 33Mary Berenson, ca. 1910.34Mary Berenson Colony Club lecture handbill35Moretto da Brescia (Alessandro Bonvicino, ca. 1498–1554), The Entombment, 155436Moretto da Brescia (Alessandro Bonvicino, ca. 1498–1554), Christ in the Wilderness, n.d.37Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo (1480/85–after 1548), Saint Matthew and the Angel, ca. 153438Correggio (Antonio Allegri, active by 1514–died 1534), Saints Peter, Martha, Mary Magdalen, and Leonard, n.d.39Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, ca. 1488–1576), Portrait of a Man, ca. 151540Unknown photographer, John Ringling in Front of the Ca’ d’Zan, ca. 193041John H. Phillips, Air Plane View of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 192842John H. Phillips, View of the Italian Room, ca. 192743Veronese (Paolo Caliari, 1528–1588), Rest on the Flight into Egypt, ca. 157044Piero di Cosimo (1461–1521), The Building of a Palace, ca. 1515 45Workshop of Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, ca. 1488–1576), Sultana Rossa, 1550s46Samuel H. Kress (1863–1955), in the early 1900s47Andrea di Bartolo (active 1389–1428), Madonna and Child [obverse], ca. 141548Vincenzo Catena (ca. 1480–1531), Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Joseph, ca. 152549Duccio di Buoninsegna (ca. 1255–ca. 1319), The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, ca. 1308–1150Giotto di Bondone (probably 1266–1337), The Peruzzi Altarpiece, ca. 1310–15

“A Market for Merchant Princes provides an excellent survey and investigation of how great Italian Renaissance paintings came to enter American collections. Key collectors and institutions—such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, James Jackson Jarves, J. Pierpont Morgan, Henry Walters, Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Samuel H. Kress—are discussed, as are the noted connoisseurs Morelli and Berenson, who had an important impact on them. This will become an essential reference work for the history of collecting in this country.”—Eric M. Zafran, Wadsworth Atheneum