The Rape of Proserpine
manner of Lambert Sustris (Amsterdam c.1515 – Venice after 1560)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1550 - 1599
Materials
Oil on panel (pine)
Measurements
298 x 686 mm (11 3/4 x 27 in)
Place of origin
Venice
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446808
Caption
Proserpine was the daughter of the corn-goddess, Ceres. She was picking flowers in a meadow when she caught the eye of Pluto, King of the Underworld. According to Ovid, he swept her away on his chariot, and caused a great chasm to open before them in the earth, so that he might carry her down to his kingdom. The attribution of this picture has yet to be precisely determined. It was formerly given to Dosso Dossi and Paris Bordone. Given its small size, it is conceivable that it might have been inserted into a piece of furniture, such as a chest.
Summary
Oil painting on pine panel, The Rape of Proserpine, in the manner of Lambert Sustris (c.1515-after 1560), second half of 16th century. In a romantic landscape Proserpine struggles with Pluto in a golden chariot drawn towards the right by two white horses.
Provenance
Reputedly -when attributed to Dossi Dossi - Lady Horner, Mells (perhaps inherited from her grandfather, William Graham, but not in any list or inventory of his collection, whilst in a letter of 22 February 1958 to St John Gore, Kenneth Garlick passed on the information from Sir Ellis Waterhouse that the Dosso Dossi was still at Mells, and that it, not the Upton picture, was the one cited by Berenson) until September 1943, when, with the Diana and Actaeon, it was acquired by Lord Bearsted from the Arcade Gallery in exchange for two other pictures, and an additional £100. On the reverse of the panel is the export seal of the Accademia of Venice. The Arcade Gallery’s bill makes no mention of any provenance from Lady Horner at Mells, which first occurs in the 2nd Lord Bearsted’s entry for the picture; given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948) shortly before his death in 1948
Credit line
Upton House, The Bearsted Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
manner of Lambert Sustris (Amsterdam c.1515 – Venice after 1560), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Dosso Dossi (c.1486 - Ferrara 1542), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Paris Bordone (Treviso 1500 – Venice 1571), artist
References
Berenson 1957 Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, (2 vols) 1957 , vol.1, p.168 Garnett 2000 Oliver Garnett, ‘The Letters and Collection of William Graham’, The Walpole Society, vol.LXII, 2000, p.333, cat.no.d302
