Luca Signorelli, 'The Circumcision', about 1490-1
About the work
Overview
Following Jewish tradition, Christ was circumcised when he was eight days old (Luke 2: 21). Seated on his mother’s lap, Christ reaches out to the mohel, the man who will perform the surgery, who holds a fine blade. The vibrantly coloured marble floor tiles are designed to attract the viewer’s attention, and the white borders lead their sight towards the central focus of the image, the infant Christ.
The subject was chosen by the patrons, the Confraternity of the Holy Name of Jesus, who were connected with the church of San Francesco, Volterra. The scene was an appropriate focus for their devotion, as it was when the infant Christ was named Jesus.
Christ as we see him now is the invention of a different artist, Sodoma, who was working in Volterra in the late 1530s; we don't know why he painted over Signorelli’s version.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Circumcision
- Artist
- Luca Signorelli
- Artist dates
- about 1440/50 - 1523
- Date made
- about 1490-1
- Medium and support
- oil, originally on wood, transferred to canvas
- Dimensions
- 258.5 × 180 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1882
- Inventory number
- NG1128
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 20th-century Replica Frame
Provenance
In all probability from the Chapel of the Circumcision, belonging to the Compagnia del Santissimo Nome di Gesù in S. Francesco at Volterra. The Volterra picture is recorded in situ in 1756 and in 1782, but it seems to have been removed not very long afterwards. No. 1128 was probably in the Lansdowne Sale, London, 19 March, 1806 (lot 67). No. 1128 was certainly in the Duke of Hamilton’s Collection at Hamilton Palace. Exhibited at the R.A., 1873 (No. 162). Purchased at the Hamilton Sale, 1 July, 1882 (lot 769).
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.
Exhibition history
-
2011Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500The National Gallery (London)6 July 2011 - 2 October 2011
Bibliography
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1782A. Chiusole, Itinerario delle pitture, sculture, ed architetture più rare di molte città d'Italia, Venice 1782
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1806Peter Coxe, Burrell, and Foster, The Catalogue of All that Well-Known Valuable Collection of Capital Paintings: The Property of the Late Most Noble the Marquis of Lansdowne, Which have Long been Considered as One of the Great Ornaments of Lansdowne House, London, 19 March 1806 - 20 March 1806
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1832R. Guarnacci and C. Serguidi, Guida per la città di Volterra, Volterra 1832
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1854G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
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1878G. Vasari, Le vite de'più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori: Con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi, ed. G. Milanesi, 8 vols, Florence 1878
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1879R. Vischer, Luca Signorelli und die italienische Renaissance: Eine kunsthistorische Monographie, Leipzig 1879
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1882C. Monkhouse, 'The Hamilton Collection', Art Journal, 1882
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1882Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures, Works of Art, and Decorative Objects, the Property of His Grace the Duke of Hamilton, K.T., London, 17 June 1882 - 20 July 1882
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1884A. Cinci, 'La Chiesa di S. Francesco', in Storia di Volterra: Memori e Documenti, Volterra 1884
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1891G. Frizzoni, Arte italiana del Rinascimento, Milan 1891
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1893Burlington Fine Arts Club, The Work of Luca Signorelli and His School, London 1893
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1897B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York 1897
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1899M. Cruttwell, Luca Signorelli, London 1899
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1903J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. R.L. Douglas, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1903
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1903G. Mancini, Vita di Luca Signorelli, Florence 1903
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1905C. Ricci, Volterra, Bergamo 1905
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1921M. Salmi, Luca Signorelli, Florence 1921
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1921A. Venturi, Luca Signorelli, Florence 1921
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1923R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
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1927L. Düssler, Signorelli, Klassiker der Kunst 34, Berlin 1927
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1953M. Salmi, Luca Signorelli, Novara 1953
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1959P. Rotondi, 'Un'ipotesi sui rapporti tra Luca Signorelli ed Ercole Roberti', in Studies in the History of Art dedicated to William E.Suida, London 1959, pp. 110-5
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1960G. Morelli, Italienische Malerie der Renaissance: Im Briefwechsel von Giovanni Morelli und Jean Paul Richter, 1876-1891, ed. I.A. Richter, Baden Baden 1960
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1961M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
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1964P. Scarpellini, Luca Signorelli, Milan 1964
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1966M. Lenzini, Moriondo Signorelli, Florence 1966
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1978E. Carli, Volterra nel Medioevo e nel Rinascimento, Pisa 1978
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1984M. Seidel, 'Signorelli um 1490', Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, XXVI, 1984, pp. 181-256
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1985R. Williams, 'Notes by Vincenzo Borghini on Works of Art in San Gimignano and Volterra: A Source for Vasari's "Lives"', The Burlington Magazine, CXXVII, 1985, pp. 17-21
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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1988A. Conti, Storia del restauro e della conservazione delle opere d'arte, Milan 1988
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1989F. Lessi, 'Dalle fonti manoscritte e dalla letteratura guidistica', in Pisa Museo Aperto, Livorno 1989, pp. 10-11
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1990A. Paolucci, Luca Signorelli, Florence 1990
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1992J.M. Greenstein, Mantegna and Painting as Historical Narrative, Chicago 1992
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1995C. Van Cleave, Luca Signorelli as a Draughtsman, Phd Thesis, Oxford University 1995
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1996T. Henry, The Career of Luca Signorelli in the 1490s, Phd Thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art 1996
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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.
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