Costabili collection


The Costabili collection or Costabili Gallery was a large art collection in Ferrara in the 19th century, mainly consisting of Ferrarese art. Works from the collection were purchased by mid and late 19th-century art collectors like Giovanni Morelli, Austen Henry Layard and Charles Eastlake, eventually ending in many of the major collections of art around the world. A significant group of paintings ended up in the National Gallery in London.
History
[edit]The collection was created by Marchese Giovanni Battista Costabili Contain and continued by his grand-nephew Marchese Giovanni Costabili Contain. By the late 1850s, the collection was deteriorating, with many works in poor condition, and Marchese started selling works to pay off his debts.[1] His son Marchese Alfonso Costabili Contain eventually sold the remainder of the collection in 1885.
The Costabili collection also included a library with some 400 manuscripts, 400 incunables, and 800 books from the Aldine Press. It was sold in four sales in 1858 and 1859.[2]
Selected works
[edit]- Still life with plates by Paolo Antonio Barbieri, sold by Sotheby's in 2008 for $181,000.[3]
- Saint Francis by Sandro Botticelli, now in the National Gallery
- Deposizione by Baldassarre Carrari the Elder
- Santa Caterina martirizzata by Michele Coltellini, now in the Musée Jacquemart-André
- Saint Sebastian by Lorenzo Costa, now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
- Saint Jerome by Bono da Ferrara, now in the National Gallery
- Madonna in adoration of the Christ Child by Ortolano Ferrarese, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
- Madonna and Child with the Donor, Pietro de' Lardi, Presented by Saint Nicholas by Master G.Z., now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Unidentified work by Ludovico Mazzolino, now in the Wawel Castle in Poland
- Madonna and Child; Saint John the Baptist; Saint Jerome by Sano di Pietro, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Virgin and Child with Saints George and Anthony by Pisanello, now in the National Gallery
- Unidentified work by Ercole Setti, now in the Galleria Estense
- Saint Bernardino by Benvenuto Tisi, now in the Alberto Saibene collection in Milan, and two other saints and a The Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Peter and an Angel holding back a Curtain by the same painter
- Saint Jerome by Cosimo Tura, now in the National Gallery, and a Portrait of a Young Man in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Portrait of a Young Man by Cosimo Tura
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Virgin and Child with Saints George and Anthony by Pisanello
Notes
[edit]- ^ Fenton, James (1 March 2003). "Illumination in sacred faces". Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ^ "COSTABILI CONTAINI". Christie's. 22 March 2005. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ^ "PAOLO ANTONIO BARBIERI". Sotheby's. 24 January 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
Further reading
[edit]- Mattaliano, Emanuele (1998). La collezione Costabili (in Italian). Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara. p. 308. ISBN 978-88-317-7115-3.