After Correggio, 'Group of Heads', before 1587
About the work
Overview
This painting on canvas, together with another Group of Heads, is a copy of part of Correggio’s destroyed fresco, The Coronation of the Virgin, which was painted in the apse of S. Giovanni Evangelista in Parma. A number of fragments of Correggio’s original fresco are also in the National Gallery’s collection.
This picture is a copy of the figures on the right of the fresco behind the figure of Saint John the Baptist. His lamb (representing Christ, who will be sacrificed for humanity) is held by the infant angel in the copy, although John the Baptist himself is not included.
When it was in the Farnese Collection in Rome this copy was believed to be by Annibale Carracci. However, we do not know who painted it. It is likely to be an early copy made before Correggio’s original fresco was detached from the apse of S. Giovanni Evangelista in the 1580s.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Group of Heads
- Artist
- After Correggio
- Artist dates
- active 1494; died 1534
- Date made
- before 1587
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 137.2 × 106 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1824
- Inventory number
- NG37
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Collections of Queen Christina of Sweden, Duke of Bracciano, Orléans (page 58 in the 1727 catalogue). Bought by J. J. Angerstein on the dispersal of the Orléans collection at the end of the eighteenth century. Purchased with Angerstein collection, 1824. Exh.: Stockholm (Queen Christina), 1966 (1169).
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1987; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1727L.D. de Saint-Gelais, Description des tableaux du Palais Royal: Avec la vie des peintres à la tête de leurs ouvrages: Dédiée à Monseigneur le duc d'Orleans, premier prince du sang, Paris 1727
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1798Michael Bryan's Gallery, A Catalogue of the Orléans' Italian Pictures which will be Exhibited for Sale by Private Contract on Wednesday 26th December 1798 and Following Days at the Lyceum in the Strand and at Mr. Bryan's Gallery, 88 Pall Mall, London, 26 December 1798
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1823J. Young, A Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Pictures of the Late John Julius Angerstein, Esq: Containing a Finished Etching of Every Picture, and Accompanied with Historical and Biographical Notices, London 1823
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1824W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
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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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1871J. Meyer, Correggio, Leipzig 1871
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1897J.O. Granberg, La galerie de tableaux de la reine Christine de Suède, Stockholm 1897
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1962Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools (excluding the Venetian), London 1962
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1966P. Bjuström et al., Christina, Queen of Sweden: A Personality of European Civilisation (exh. cat. Nationalmuseum, 29 June - 16 October 1966), Stockholm 1966
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1975C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
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1976C. Gould, The Paintings of Correggio, London 1976
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1987Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
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1994P.L. de Castris and M. Utili, Museo e gallerie nazionali di Capodimonte: La collezione Farnese: La scuola Emiliana: I dipinti, i disegni, Naples 1994
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1995M. Mussini, Correggio Tradotto: Fortuna di Antonio Allegri nella stampa di riproduzioni fra Cinquecento e Ottocento, Milan 1995
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1997D. Ekserdjian, Correggio, London 1997
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1997J. Pomeroy, 'The Orléans Collection: Its Impact on the British Art World', Apollo, CXLV/429, 1997, pp. 26-31
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2003M. Olausson et al., Cristina di Svezia: Le collezioni reali (exh. cat. Fondazione Memmo, 31 October 2003 - 15 January 2004), Rome 2003
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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