The Apparition of the Virgin

Commissioned c. 1530/1540 by Giulia Muzzarelli, Ferrara. possibly Cardinale Luigi d'Este, Tivoli, by 1573 until at least 1580.[1] Borghese collection, Rome, as by Scarsellino.[2] Littlehales, London; (Littlehales sale, Christie's, London, 2 March 1804, no. 67, as by Palma Giovane, bought in). Robert Fagan and Charles Grignion, Rome; (Fagan and Grignion sale, Squibb, London, 29 May 1806, no. 50, as by Carracci, sale postponed from 26 May 1806). Charles John Howard, 17th earl of Suffolk [1804-1876], Charlton Park, Wiltshire, by 1854. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold 1937 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] The painting was possibly removed by Cardinale Luigi d'Este by 1573, or removed and taken to Rome when Ferrara passed to Papacy in 1598, or it may have reverted to the possession of the Muzzarelli family; see Girolamo Baruffaldi, _Vite de' pittori e scultori ferrarese scritte dall'arciprete Girolamo Baruffaldi, con annotazioni_, 2 vols., Ferrara, 1844: 1:385, and Alberto Serafini, _Girolamo da Carpi, pittore e architetto ferrarese (1501-1556)_, Rome, 1915: 136. [2] The painting was possibly given to Scipione Borghese by Battista Muzzarelli c. 1608, and was first recorded in the Borghese collection in a 1693 inventory; see the letter of 6 September 1988 from Burton B. Fredericksen, The Getty Provenance Index, in NGA curatorial files. [3] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, 1979: 1:226. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2070.