The Misfortunes of Cephalus
Bernardino Luini·c. 1520/1522
Historical Context
The Misfortunes of Cephalus from Luini's Villa Pelucca cycle provides a narrative overview of the hero's troubles, functioning as a kind of visual summary of the mythological program. In fresco cycles, individual scenes were designed to be read in sequence and also to be viewed simultaneously, creating a narrative that could be experienced both linearly and spatially. Luini's design for the Villa Pelucca demonstrated his command of large-scale decorative narrative — a skill that distinguished him from artists confined to easel painting. The cycle's distribution across American museums today (primarily the National Gallery of Art) reflects the active market for Italian Renaissance frescoes among nineteenth-century American collectors building the collections that would become public institutions.
Technical Analysis
The narrative fresco is composed with the clarity and decorative balance characteristic of Luini's wall paintings. The figures are arranged to communicate the story effectively while maintaining visual harmony within the architectural setting. The fresco technique is handled with confident, assured brushwork.
Provenance
Commissioned c. 1522 by Gerolamo Rabia for either the Casa Rabia, Milan, or his country house, La Pelucca, near Monza.[1] Michele Cavaleri, Milan; sold 1873 to Enrico (Henri) Cernuschi [1821-1896], Paris and Menton, until at least 1895.[2] (Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris), by 1897.[3] Rodolphe Kann [d. 1905], Paris, by 1900;[4] his estate; sold 1907 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 1942 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1943 to NGA. [1] See the discussion in Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:285-288. If the frescoes were in the Casa Rabia, on the Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan, the house passed out of the family about 1530, but the paintings remained in place since they were not removed until about 1800. Among the subsequent owners of the house were the Palletta and Silva families. [2] The ownership of the frescoes by Cavaleri and Cernuschi, as well as other information about the provenance is discussed in detail by Luca Beltrami, _Luini, materiale de studio_, Milan, 1911: 188-198. Cavaleri was a Milanese lawyer who began collecting around 1845 and from 1870 on opened to the public what by then had come to be called the Cavaleri Museum. The owner hoped that the collection would be purchased by the city of Milan, but when negotiations fell through, he sold the entire collection to Cernuschi on 13 April 1873 (see Alessandra Mottola Molfino, "Collezionismo e mercato artistico a Milano," in _Zenale e Leonardo. Tradizione e rinnovamento della pittura lombarda_, Milan, 1982: 247-248). Cernuschi was a Milanese emigrant to France, and as he otherwise collected mainly objects of Asian Art (see Caroline Gyss-Vermande, "Cernuschi, Henri," in _Dictionary of Art_, 34 vols., New York, 1996: 6:345), it is likely he obtained his Italian paintings from the Cavaleri collection. [3] Charles Sedelmeyer, [catalogue], Paris, 1897: nos. 52-60. [4] _Gemälde-Sammlung des Herrn Rudolf Kann in Paris. 100 Photogravuren mit Text von Wilhelm Bode_, Vienna, 1900. [5] Fern Rusk Shapley, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century_, London, 1968: 141-142. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2244.
