Holy Family with John the Baptist and Saint Catherine

ca. 1750

Italian, Venice, 1699 - 1760

The tender intimacy of this image coincides with eighteenth-century attitudes toward the family. But the composition originates in a painting by Paolo Veronese, the sixteenth-century artist whose works experienced a popular revival two hundred years later.

Oil on canvas

23 7/8 x 27 in. (60.7 x 68.6 cm)

Samuel H. Kress Collection

61.155

Provenance: Princess Galitzin, St. Petersburg; Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-195), Florence; sold to Samuel H. Kress (1863-1955), New York, June 26, 1935, as Francesco Guardi; gift from Kress to National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1939 - deaccessioned 1952; returned by NGA to Kress; Seattle Art Museum, since 1952, accessioned 1961

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySpringfield, Mass., Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Francesco Guardi, Feb. 20 - Mar. 21, 1937. Text by J.L. Francesco Clarke. Cat. no. 22.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, 1941-1952. Cat. no. 292, p. 43-44.

Seattle, Wash., Seattle Art Museum, Italian Art: Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952. Text by William Suida and Sherman Lee. Cat. no. 25, pp. 9, 22.

Houston, Tex., Museum of Fine Arts, The Guardi Family, Jan. 13 - Feb. 16, 1958. Text by J. Byam Shaw. Cat. no. 2.

Santa Barbara, Calif., Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Francesco Guardi, Mar. 1958.

Houston, Tex., Museum of Fine Arts, Kress Collection, Apr. 1958-1961.

Venice, Italy, Palazzo Grassi, Mostra dei Guardi, June 5 - Oct. 10, 1965. Text by Pietro Zampetti. Cat. no. 19, p. 34.

Seattle, Wash., Henry Art Gallery, XVIII Century Venetian Drawings: Drawings from American Academic Collections, Paintings from the Seattle Art Museum, Sept. 22 - Oct. 20, 1974. Cat. no. C, p. 6.

Raleigh, N.C., North Carolina Museum of Art, A Gift to America: Masterpieces of European Painting from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Feb. 5 - Apr. 24, 1994 (Houston, Tex., The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 22-Aug. 14, 1994; Seattle, Wash., Seattle Art Museum, Sept. 15-Nov. 20, 1994; San Francisco, Calif., The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Dec. 17, 1994-Mar. 4, 1995). Text by David Steel et al. Cat. no. 39, pp. 216-220.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Body Language, Dec. 22 - 2018 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesPreliminary Catalogue of Painting and Sculpture: Descriptive List with Notes. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1941; p. 92.

Goering, Max. Francesco Guardi. Vienna, Austria: A. Schroll & Co., 1944; p. 37.

"Recent Important Acquisitions of American Collections." The Art Quarterly 15, no. 4 (Winter 1952): pp. 349-351, reproduced p. 348 (as Francesco Guardi).

Fiocco, Giuseppe. "Il Problema di Francesco Guardi." Arte Veneta VI (1952): p. 118.

Shaw, J. Byam. "Guardi and His Brothers and Son." Art News 56, no. 10 (Feb. 1958): pp. 34- 35, reproduced no. 6.

Morassi, Antonio. “Antono Guardi ai Servigi del Feldmarescialo.” Emporium 131 (1960): 147, 199.

Annual Report of the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle Art Museum, 1961; reproduced p. 37., fig. 22.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: October-December, 1961." The Art Quarterly 25, no. 1 (Spring 1962): reproduced p. 77 (as Francesco Guardi).

"Preview." KLSN Program Guide (December 1963): p. 7.

Martini, Eqidio. La Pittura Veneziana del Settecento. Venice, Italy: Edizioni Marciare, 1964; p. 273.

Ruhmer, Eberhard. “’Mostra Dei Guardi’: Ausstellung im Palazzo Grassi. Venedig 5. Juni Bis 10. Oktober 1965.” Pantheon 23 (1965): p. 339.

Nicolson, Benedict. “The Guardi Brothers as Figure Painters.” Burlington Magazine 107, no. 750 (Sept. 1965): p. 472.

Brunetti, Estella. Problemi Guardeschi. Venice, Italy: Alfieri, 1966; p. 43.

Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII Century. London, England: Phaidon Press for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1973; p. 170, fig. 333.

Rosenthal, Gertrude, ed. Italian Paintings XIV-XVIII Centuries. Exh. Cat. Baltimore, Md.: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1981; reproduced p. 184, fig. 6.

Steinberg, Leo. "The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion." October 25 (1983): p. 76, reproduced fig. 205.

Steinberg, Leo. The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983; p. 76, reproduced fig. 205.

Marinelli, Sergio. Veronese e Verona. Exh. Cat. Verona, Italy: Museo di Castelveccio, 1988; pp. 214-215, reproduced p. 215.

Pedrocco, Filippo. Antonio Guardi Catalogue Raisonne. Milan, Italy: Berenice Art Books, 1992.

Pignatti, Terisio, and Filippo Pedrocco. Veronese. Milan: Electo, 1995.

Ishikawa, Chiyo. The Samuel H. Kress Collection at the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle Art Museum, 1997; fig. 26, pp. 43, 45.

Kodansha. Weekly World Travel 94 (2000): p. 16.

Old Master and British Pictures. Auction Cat. London, U.K.: Christie's, Apr. 25, 2008; ref. lot 95, p. 144.

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