The Wife of Hasdrubal and Her Children

Probably commissioned by Eleonora of Aragon, duchess of Ferrara [1450-1493]. Count Étienne Méjan [secretary to Eugène Beauharnais], Milan, by 1812.[1] Count d'Arache [possibly Count Bertolazone d'Arache], Turin, by 1849;[2] bequest 1857 to Count Castellani, Turin.[3] Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London, by 1861; probably sold to Robert Napier, West Shandon, Strathclyde, Scotland, by 1865;[4] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 April 1877, no. 422, as _The Nurse Saving the Children of Medea_ by Andrea Mantegna); repurchased by Sir John Charles Robinson, London; purchased 1878 by Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey;[5] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Herbert Cook, 3rd bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold August 1964 to (S. & R. Rosenberg, London);[6] (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York); purchased 27 May 1965 by NGA. [1] Gaetano Zancon, _Galleria inedita raccolta da privati gabinetti Milanesi_, Milan, 1812: no. 5. [2] Pietro Selvatico in Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, 5 (1849): 188. Otto Mündler saw the painting in April and October 1856; see "The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler," ed. Carol Togneri Dowd, _Walpole Society_ 51 (1985): 135, 180, 278, 297. [3] The following is inscribed on the cradle: "Andrea Mantegna, della collezione del Conte de Mejan, e poi da quella del Conte Castellani di Torino" (see Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:410). [4] The catalogue of the Napier collection, mainly compiled by J.C. Robinson, was privately printed in London in 1865 (see Tancred Borenius, _A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook_, 3 vols., London, 1913-1915: 1[1913]:no. 119). Robinson most likely sold the painting to Napier, a friend. [5] Borenius 1913, 1(1913):no. 119. [6] See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England.