Bernardino Luini, 'Christ among the Doctors', probably about 1515-30
About the work
Overview
At the age of 12, Jesus was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem by Mary and Joseph, who became accidentally separated from him. They found him three days later debating learnedly with the theologians there (Luke 2: 41). This is the moment at which Christ first identifies himself as the son of God: ‘Why are you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’
Jesus looks at us serenely as he counts the points of his argument off on his fingers. The picture is sometimes thought to be the adult Christ disputing with the Pharisees, as he looks older than 12 – the fine down of a new beard is growing on his chin.
The painting was previously believed to be by Leonardo, and may be based on an original design by him. There are numerous versions of this picture: the composition was enormously famous.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Christ among the Doctors
- Artist
- Bernardino Luini
- Artist dates
- about 1480 - 1532
- Date made
- probably about 1515-30
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 72.4 × 85.7 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831
- Inventory number
- NG18
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
No. 18 was in Rome by the seventeenth century; it is an Aldobrandini picture, that belonged to Donna Olimpia Aldobrandini, Principessa di Rossano, who married secondly Camillo Pamphilj in 1647, and died in 1681. Later owned by their son, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj (Cardinal 1681, died 1730), and recorded in Palazzo Pamphilj al Corso in 1759 and 1763. Much Aldobrandini property had passed by entail from Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini (died 1638) to the already mentioned Olimpia. At her death, the Rossano title passed to the Borghese, but the Aldobrandini fortune passed to certain members of the Pamphilj family, who assumed the name of Aldobrandini. In the first instance, much of the Aldobrandini property went to one of Olimpia’s sons, Giovanni Battista; what clearly appears to be No. 18 went to another son, Cardinal Benedetto, but he at his death bequeathed his fortune to the family. Olimpia’s last direct heir was Donna Maria Livia Aldobrandini (Pamphilj), wife of Prince Altieri. She died in 1760; the Pamphilj title passed to the Doria-Landi, but a lawsuit over the Aldobrandini inheritance between the Borghese and the Colonna was won by the Borghese in 1769. The arrangement arrived at was that the Aldobrandini fortune and title should be held by the second son of the head of the Borghese family. It is therefore no difficulty that the Aldobrandini-Pamphilj version of No. 18 should pass to the Borghese; and what is certainly No. 18 is recorded in Palazzo Borghese in 1776, and in 1787 in the part of Palazzo Borghese occupied by Prince Aldobrandini. No. 18 was imported into England by Day in 1800/1. Buchanan seems to have been entrusted with its sale in May, 1808; at about that time, if not already by 1807, it was acquired by Lord Northwick. Exhibited at the British Institution, 1816 (No. 31); acquired from Lord Northwick by the Rev. W. Holwell Carr in 1824; Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1759G. Vasari, Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti, scritte da Giorgio Vasari … cor. da molti errori e illustrate con note, ed. G.G. Bottari, 3 vols, Rome 1759
-
1763F. Titi, Descrizione delle pitture, sculture e architetture esposte al pubblico in Roma, Rome 1763
-
1776S. Weston, Viaggiana, or, Detached Remarks on the Buildings, Pictures, Statues, Inscriptions, and of Ancient and Modern Rome, London 1776
-
1787F.W.B. von Ramdohr, Über Mahlerei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom für Liebhaber des Schönen in der Kunst, Leipzig 1787
-
1797G.A. Vasi, Itinéraire instructif de Rome, Rome 1797
-
1804C. Amoretti, 'Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studi e le opere di Lionardo da Vinci', in C. Amoretti (ed.), Trattato della pittura di Lionardo da Vinci, Milan 1804
-
1807J. Feltham, The Picture of London for 1807, London 1807
-
1808Catalogue of a Select Collection of Celebrated Pictures from the Aldobrandini Villa, Colonna, Borghese & Other Palaces, London, 24 May 1808
-
1811I. Fumagalli, Scuola di Leonardo da Vinci in Lombardia, Milan 1811
-
1816R. Smirke, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Pictures Now Exhibiting in Pall Mall, London 1816
-
1816British Institution, Catalogue of Pictures of the Italian and Spanish Schools with which the Proprietors have Favoured the British Institution (exh. cat. British Institution, 1816), London 1816
-
1824W. Buchanan, 'Catalogue of Mr. Day's Pictures Exhibited for Sale by Private Contract… 1800-1801', in Memoirs of Painting, London 1824, vol. 2, pp. 4-7
-
1826J.B.L.G. Séroux d'Agincourt, Storia dell'arte dimostrata coi monumenti, 8 vols, Prato 1826
-
1830R.T. Dale, The Iris, London 1830
-
1831National Gallery, A Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery Pall Mall, London 1831
-
1832W.Y. Ottley, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1832
-
1832P. Pückler-Muskau, Tour in Germany, Holland and England, London 1832
-
1833J.D. Passavant, Kunstreise durch England und Belgien, Frankfurt am Main 1833
-
1833A.J. Valpy, Valpy's National Gallery of Painting and Sculpture, London 1833
-
1834J. Landseer, A Descriptive, Explanatory, and Critical Catalogue of Fifty of the Earliest Pictures Contained in the National Gallery of Great Britain, London 1834
-
1836T.F. Dibdin, Reminiscences of a Literary Life, London 1836
-
1836J.D. Passavant, Tour of a German Artist in England, London 1836
-
1837G.F. Waagen, Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris, vol. 1, Berlin 1837
-
1838G.F. Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, trans. H. Lloyd, vol. 2, London 1838
-
1840National Gallery, The National Gallery of Pictures by the Great Masters, London 1840
-
1842Mrs Jameson, A Handbook to the Public Galleries of Art in and Near London, London 1842
-
1843F. Summerly, Felix Summerly's Hand Book for the National Gallery, London 1843
-
1845G. Foggo, A Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery with Critical Notes, London 1845
-
1847R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1847
-
1854R.N. Wornum and C.L. Eastlake, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, with Biographical Notices of the Painters, London 1854
-
1867A.A. Lavice, Revue des musées d'Angleterre, Paris 1867
-
1878H. Blackburn, Illustrated Catalogue to the National Gallery: Foreign Schools, London 1878
-
1882C. Ephrussi, Albert Dürer et ses dessins, Paris 1882
-
1887A. Luzio, I precettori di Isabella d'Este, Ancona 1887
-
1888A. Luzio, 'Ancora Leonardo da Vinci e Isabella d'Este', Archivio storico dell'arte, I, 1888, pp. 181-4
-
1888A. Luzio, 'Nuovi documenti su Leonardo da Vinci', Archivio storico dell'arte, I, 1888
-
1891G. Frizzoni, 'L'arte italiana nella Galleria Nazionale di Londra', in Arte Italiana del Rinascimento, Milan 1891
-
1898J. Burckhardt, 'Das Altarbild', in Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte, Basel 1898
-
1899G.C. Williamson, Bernardino Luini, London 1899
-
1922J. Farington, The Farington Diary, ed. J. Greig, 8 vols, London 1922
-
1925C.J. Holmes, Old Masters and Modern Art: The National Gallery, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, London 1925
-
1929National Gallery, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square: Catalogue, 86th edn, London 1929
-
1935K. Clark, A Catalogue of the Drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, Cambridge 1935
-
1936A.E. Popham, 'Sebastiano Resta and His Collections', Old Master Drawings, XI, 1936, pp. 1-19
-
1937H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht Dürers: Band II, der reife Dürer, Basel 1937
-
1938O. Chomentovskaja, 'Le comput digital: Histoire d'un geste dans l'art de la renaissance italienne', Gazette des beaux-arts, LXXX/2, 1938, pp. 157-72
-
1939K. Clark, Leonardo da Vinci: An Account of His Development as an Artist, Cambridge 1939
-
1945E. Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer, London 1945
-
1949Los Angeles County Museum, Leonardo da Vinci Loan Exhibition (exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 3 June - 1 July 1949), Los Angeles 1949
-
1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
-
1956A. Ottino della Chiesa, Bernardino Luini, Novara 1956
-
1959J. Bialostocki, '"Opus Quinque Dierum": Dürer's "Christ among the Doctors" and Its Sources', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXII, 1959, pp. 17-34
-
1960P. Della Pergola, 'Gli inventari Aldobrandini: Inventario del 1626', Arte antica e moderna, XII/100, 1960, pp. 425-44
-
1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
-
1963P. Della Pergola, 'Gli inventari Aldobrandini: L'inventario del 1682, II', Arte antica e moderna, 21, 1963, pp. 61-87
-
1964C. Onofrio, 'Inventario dei dipinti del Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, compilato da G.B. Agucchi nel 1603', Palatino, VIII, 1964, pp. 15-20, 158-62, 202-11
-
1965S. Ringbom, 'Icon to Narrative: The Rise of the Dramatic Close-Up in Fifteenth-Century Devotional Painting', Acta Academia Aboensis, Humaniora, XXXI/2, 1965, pp. 175-90
-
1966F. Winzinger, 'Albrecht Dürer in Rom', Pantheon, XXIV, 1966
-
1980M.A. Visentini, 'In margine a un dipinto inedito di Bartolomeo Montagna', Antichità viva, XIX/5, 1980, pp. 5-10
-
1983P. Humfrey, Cima da Conegliano, Cambridge 1983
-
1983National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, January 1983 – December 1983', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, VIII, 1984, pp. 71-2
-
1983A. Vezzosi et al., Leonardo e il leonardismo a Napoli e a Roma (exh. cat. Museo di Capodimonte, 1983; Palazzo Venezia, 1983 - 1984), Naples 1983
-
1985A. Braham, Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century, London 1985
-
1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
-
1988J. Burckhardt, The Altarpiece in Renaissance Italy, ed. P. Humfrey, Oxford 1988
-
1992J. Shearman, Only Connect: Art and the Spectator in the Italian Renaissance, Princeton 1992
-
1992P. Parlavecchia, Leonardo e Venezia (exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, 4 April - 13 July 1992), Venice 1992
-
1996N. MacGregor, 'Passavant and Lady Eastlake', in H. Bauereisen (ed.), Correspondances: Festschrift für Margret Stuffmann, Mainz 1996, pp. 166-74
-
1997M. Schawe, '"…und lest nach dem sin…": Albrecht Dürer's Darstellung des zwölfjährigen Jesus im Tempel von 1506', Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, XLVIII, 1997, pp. 43-66
-
2000E.M. Pozzolo, 'Qualche spiraglio sulla Bottega Lottesca', Venezia cinquecento, X/19, 2000, pp. 171-99
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2002Oliver Bradbury and Nicholas Penny, 'The Picture Collecting of Lord Northwick: Part I', The Burlington Magazine, CXLIV/1193, August 2002, pp. 485–96
-
2006C. Bertelli, 'I volti di Cristo secondo Leonardo', Arte lombarda, CXLVI, 2006, pp. 214-9
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
More works by Bernardino Luini
The Virgin Mary sits in the shelter of a rocky grotto, with the infants Christ and John the Baptist beside her. This is an early work by the Milanese painter Luini, He was deeply influenced by Leonardo, who was working in Milan from about 1482 to 1499. The figure of the Virgin and the infant Bapt...
Not on display
Workshop of Bernardino Luini
The Christ Child stands on a stone parapet leaning against his mother, who turns to meet his gaze. He wraps one arm tenderly about her neck as she holds him gently around his waist in a very natural pose. In his other hand he holds an apple, a symbol of the Fall of humankind that he will redeem b...
Not on display
After Bernardino Luini
This is a copy of the central figure of Christ from Luini’s Christ Among the Doctors, also in National Gallery’s collection. Luini’s composition may be based on an original design by Leonardo.At the age of 12, Jesus was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem by Mary and Joseph, who became accidentally...
Not on display
After Bernardino Luini
Saint Catherine of Alexandria sits at a table reading a book. On either side of her are two angels: one holds Catherine’s traditional attribute of the spiked wheel on which she was tortured for her Christian faith, the other holds a martyr’s palm.The picture is a later version of a painting by Be...
Not on display