CATENA, VINCENZO DI BIAGIO

THE СIRCUMCISION

On the reverse there is a paper label on the lower section of the frame indicating that the work is part of the collection of the Duke of Leuchtenberg. The printed text reads as follows: "Herzoglich Leuchtenberg/ Majorats Fideicommiss/ Matrikel II 3/ Inventar No. 148/148" (the number is written in Indian ink) and there is another inscription in Indian ink: "2 Gent. Bellini".

In the collection of the Duke of Leuchtenberg this was considered to be a work by Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, but later - based on an attribution by Waagen – one by Vincenzo Catena. The composition can be traced back to an original painted by Giovanni Bellini c. 1490 but now lost. There were many subsequent versions of the work, which vary slightly from each other. The variant from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is one of the finest as regards its level of execution.

Provenance: till 1918 in the collection of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg (Munich, Saint Petersburg, Petrograd); 1918-1919 in the State Museums Foundation; from 1920 in the Russian Museum and in the Pushkin Museum since 1924.