Paris Bordone, 'A Pair of Lovers', 1555-60
About the work
Overview
A young couple sit on the grass in a shady glade. The woman’s hair is unbound, and her dress disturbed. In one hand she holds reed pipes, with the other she either restrains her lover or encourages him to move the crimson cloak over her lap. A naked, winged cupid crowns them with a wreath. A wooden water cask lies next to the man’s thigh and a recorder rests above it.
The painting’s subject is uncertain. The musical instruments and setting suggest this may be a pastoral scene of a shepherd and his lover, but the woman’s clothes are neither plain nor rural. Her chemise is of the finest linen and her dress is made of elaborately patterned silk. Her cloak is of expensive crimson silk velvet.
Perhaps the picture represents a scene from classical mythology or contains a hidden meaning about love, or it may just be an erotic image of a nymph (nature goddess) and her lover.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Pair of Lovers
- Artist
- Paris Bordone
- Artist dates
- 1500 - 1571
- Date made
- 1555-60
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 139.1 × 122 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1860
- Inventory number
- NG637
- Location
- Room 9
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 16th-century Italian Frame
Provenance
Both of the variants of NG 637 were first recorded in Venetian collections during the seventeenth century. That is the most likely origin also of NG 637. The repetition of the composition suggests that at least two of the three paintings may have been made on speculation.
NG 637 is first recorded in the collection of Edmond Beaucousin in Paris. It seems to have been chiefly formed in the 1840s, with many of the paintings bought by C.J. Nieuwenhuys, and often on the London market. Beaucousin clearly had a taste for erotic subjects; he owned, in addition to NG 637, the pair of Schiavones catalogued here: the Allegory with Venus and Cupid by Bronzino (NG 651) and Garofalo’s Allegory of Love (NG 1362). The Beaucousin collection, consisting of 46 pictures, was purchased en bloc by Eastlake for the National Gallery on 27 January 1860 for 230,000 francs (£9,205 3s. 1d.), and NG 637 was put on public display on 22 or 23 March 1860.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 2, ‘Venice 1540–1600’, London 2008; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2014Making ColourThe National Gallery (London)18 June 2014 - 7 September 2014
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2017The Poetry of Venetian PaintingHamburger Kunsthalle23 February 2017 - 21 May 2017
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2022Paris Bordon - 1500-1571 - Pittore DivinoMuseo di Santa Caterina16 September 2022 - 15 January 2023
Bibliography
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1870R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1870
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1889National Gallery, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery with Biographical Notices of the Painters: Foreign Schools, London 1889
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1897B. Berenson, The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance, with an Index to their Works, 2nd edn, New York 1897
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1900L. Bailo and G. Biscaro, Della vita e delle opere di Paris Bordon, Treviso 1900
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1901A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
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1905S. Reinach, Répertoire de peintres du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance (1250-1580), 4 vols, Paris 1905
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1906L.H. Cust and H.F. Cook, 'Notes on Pictures in the Royal Collections, article IX: "The Lovers" at Buckingham Palace', The Burlington Magazine, IX/38, 1906, pp. 71-9
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1912R. Muther, Geschichte der Malerei. Bd.1. Italien bis zu Ende der Renaissance, Berlin 1912
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1915C. Phillips, 'Paris Bordone', The Burlington Magazine, XXVIII/153, 1915, pp. 93-8
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1925National Gallery, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square: Catalogue, London 1925
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1957B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places: Venetian School, 2 vols, London 1957
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1959Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Venetian School, London 1959
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1964G.M. Canova, Paris Bordon, Venice 1964
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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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1987Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
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1987G. Fossaluzza and E. Manzato (eds), Paris Bordon e il suo tempo: Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Treviso, 28-30 ottobre 1985, Treviso 1987
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1991P. Joannides, 'Titian's Daphnis and Chloe: A Search for the Subject of a Familiar Masterpiece', Apollo, CXXXIII/352, 1991, pp. 374-82
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2004L. de Frutos Sastre, 'El arte de la posibilidad: Carpio y el coleccionismo de pintura en Venecia', Reales Sitios, XLI/162, 2004, pp. 54-71
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2008Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 2, Venice, 1540-1600, London 2008
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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