David with the Head of Goliath

Andrea del Castagno (painter)
Italian, before 1419 - 1457
David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1450/1455
tempera on leather on wood
Overall (width at top): 115.5 x 76.5 cm (45 1/2 x 30 1/8 in.) overall (width at bottom): 115.5 x 40.6 cm (45 1/2 x 16 in.)
Widener Collection
1942.9.8

From the Tour: The Early Renaissance in Florence
Object 6 of 8

Provenance

Purchased, probably in Italy, in 1852 (for 6 Pounds, 13 shillings)[1] by William Drury-Lowe [1802-1877], Locko Park, Derbyshire;[2] by inheritance to his son, William Drury Nathaniel Drury-Lowe [d. 1906], Locko Park; by inheritance to his son, William Drury Drury-Lowe [d. 1916], Locko Park;[3] Captain Hanbury, by November 1912; purchased by (Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London); (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London);[4] sold 13 January 1913 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[5] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] See Richard Calvocoressi, "Locko Park. An Important Family Collection," Connoisseur 192 (June 1976): 141.

[2] See W.D.N. Drury-Lowe's preface in Jean Paul Richter, Catalogue of Pictures at Locko Park, London, 1901, as well as John Cornforth, "Locko Park, Derbyshire - II," Country Life (12 June 1969): 1506-1507, where a stay of William Drury-Lowe in Italy in 1852-1853 is mentioned. See also Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner, 34 vols., London, 1996: G:306.

[3] See the introduction by George Hughes-Hartman in Nottingham University Art Gallery. Pictures from Locko Park, Derbyshire. Illustrated Catalogue, Notthingham, 1968: n.p.

[4] As explained by G. Hughes-Hartman (in a letter of 12 February 1991, in NGA curatorial files) to Rolf Bagemihl, "Captain Hanbury [probably]...was an impecunious gentleman rather than a dealer, acting as an intermediary." According to a copy of a letter of 2 November 1920 from Thomas Agnew & Sons concerning the sale of Locko Park pictures (this also supplied by Mr. Hughes-Hartman), the shield now in the NGA "was bought by us from Captain Hanbury in November 1912 for 2,000 Pounds and delivered to Messrs. Sulley in the same month." The letter adds that, "as is usually the case when we purchase pictures from private individuals," copies were made free of charge also of the paintings coming from Locko Park. The copy of the shield is still there today.

[5] Widener collection records and letters from Sulley to Bernard Berenson (copies in NGA curatorial files). A letter of 15 January 1913 informs Berenson that the shield has been acquired by P.A.B. Widener. See also David Alan Brown, "Berenson's Contribution to Scholarship, Taste, and Collecting," in Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979: 21.

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