Lot 13

D. S. Ker, Esq., M. P., 1848
Sir Frederick Cook, 2nd Bt. (1844-1920), Doughty House, Richmond, and by inheritance to his son
Sir Herbert Cook, 3rd Bt. (1868-1939), Doughty House, Richmond, where recorded in the Octagon (Brockwell, 1932), and by inheritance to his son,
Sir Francis Cook, 4th Bt. (1907-1978)
Colnaghi, London (label verso)
the Arcade Gallery, London
Professor Michael Jaffé and by descent
Christie's, London, Old Master & British Pictures, 6 July 2007, lot 220
where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt and auction catalogue)

Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1903, no. 48 (on Colnaghi label verso)
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1994? (label verso)

Borenius, T., A Catalogue of the Painting at Doughty House, Richmond and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook BT, Vol. 1, The Italian Schools, London, 1913, no. 171.
Berenson, B, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, pp. 519, as Schiavone, and 563, as Tintoretto.
M. W. Brockwell, Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart., London, 1932, p. 50, no. 171 (248), as Tintoretto.
Berenson, B., Italian Paintings of the Renaissance, The Venetian School, London, 1957, pp. 161, as Schiavone, and 177, as Tintoretto.
Pallucchini, R., Tintoretto, le Opere Sacre e Profane, Milan, 1982, I, no. 46, II, fig. 56, where dated to c. 1543.

RELATED WORK:
Jacopo Tintoretto, Esther and Ahasuerus or Solomon and the Queen of Sheba 1545, oil on canvas, 18 x 49.7cm, The Courtauld Gallery Collection, London (accession no. P.1978.PG.457)

LOT ESSAY:
Jacopo Tintoretto was born and lived his entire life in Venice. Trained briefly in Titian's workshop before forging his own independent style, he became one of the most original and ambitious painters of the late Renaissance. Tintoretto's career was closely tied to the great religious and civic institutions of Venice, particularly the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, one of the city's most important and now best-preserved Renaissance buildings, for which he executed monumental artworks over two decades. As art historian Peter Humfrey observes, these works remain among the most powerful and enduring achievements of sixteenth-century art.(1)

Known for his speed, daring perspective, and theatrical command of light, Tintoretto earned the nickname Il Furioso, a title that captured both his fiery temperament and audacious creative spirit. The meaning "the furious one", was first recorded by Carlo Ridolfi in Le Maraviglie dell'Arte 1648, one of the earliest and most important biographies of Venetian painters.

In The Feast of Dives and Lazarus, Tintoretto paints a vivid reinterpretation of the moral parable drawn from the Gospel of Luke (16:19-31). The story tells of a rich man who lives in luxury while a poor beggar, Lazarus, lies at his gate longing for scraps from his table. When both men die, their fates are reversed: Lazarus is carried to heaven while the rich man suffers in torment. Tintoretto transforms this lesson into a visual spectacle, depicting the opulent feast at the moment before divine judgment. With his expressive brushwork and considered composition, he captures both light and shadow. The small dog in the foreground provides a subtle but vital link to Lazarus, serving as a reminder of humility amid indulgence.

This painting is recognised as a characteristic early work by the young Tintoretto. The Venetian scholar Rodolfo Pallucchini noted the influence of Bonifazio Veronese, particularly in the lively narrative spirit, while also identifying what he called una corsività pittorica di impronta schiavonesca (a painterly cursiveness with a Schiavonese imprint), suggesting a date around 1543.(2)
The phrase refers to the painterly fluidity derived from Andrea Meldolla, known as Lo Schiavone, who briefly had a strong stylistic influence on Tintoretto after the young artist's short-lived association with Titian's studio. As Ridolfi recounts, Tintoretto's apprenticeship under Titian lasted scarcely ten days, after which he developed his own painting manner by absorbing ideas from other Venetian sources.

Before Tintoretto's early style was fully understood, his works were at times confused with those of Schiavone. The Feast of Dives and Lazarus was once listed by Bernard Berenson as by both artists, a reflection of that early uncertainty.(3)

Pallucchini later observed that the painting is stylistically inseparable from the related Esther and Ahasuerus (or Solomon and the Queen of Sheba), now in The Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust) a work once attributed to Schiavone but correctly identified as Tintoretto by James Byam Shaw and published as such by Alison Welsford in The Burlington Magazine 1953.(4)

The Feast of Dives and Lazarus formed part of the celebrated Cook Collection at Doughty House, Richmond, one of the most notable private assemblages of Old Masters formed in nineteenth-century England, particularly noted for its Italian Renaissance holdings, which inspired Sir Herbert Cook's own scholarly interest in the Venetian Cinquecento.(5)

Following its time in the Cook Collection, the panel was handled by the Arcade Gallery, a London dealership specialising in Mannerist and Baroque paintings, where it was acquired by Professor Michael Jaffé, later Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The work was subsequently sold through Christie's, from where it was acquired by Robert Compton Jones. That this painting, by one of the greatest masters of the Venetian Renaissance has made its way to Australia is truly remarkable. Rarely do works of such early date and impeccable provenance appear on the market here, making this an exceptional opportunity to acquire a masterpiece by Jacopo Tintoretto, an artist whose spirited influence shaped European art.

Wiebke Brix

(1) Humfrey P., Painting in Renaissance Venice, Yale University Press, 1995, p. 223.
(2) Pallucchini R., Tintoretto: le Opere Sacre e Profane, Milan, 1982, vol. I, no. 46; vol. II, fig. 56, where dated to c.1543.
(3) Berenson B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, pp. 519 (as Schiavone) and 563 (as Tintoretto); and Italian Paintings of the Renaissance: The Venetian School, London, 1957, pp. 161 (as Schiavone) and 177 (as Tintoretto).
(4) Welsford A., Tintoretto's Esther before Ahasuerus, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 95, no. 607, 1953, p. 104.
(5) Borenius T., A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Francis Cook, Bt., vol. I, The Italian Schools, London, 1913, no. 171 (as Schiavone). Brockwell M. W., Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart., London, 1932, p. 50, no. 171 (248), (as Tintoretto).