Page - 622 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter ��6�� scenes from the Old Testament, stories of Noah—perhaps a version of The Animals entering the Ark in the Prado [Fig. 12.37]—and of Moses—perhaps The Israelites drinking the miraculous waters, likewise in the Prado, though of somewhat smaller size [Fig. 12.38]. The two others are a larger and a smaller version of the Adoration of the Shepherds. The next items, probably also highly regarded, are Jacopo Tintoretto’s Su- sanna and the Elders, probably the one now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna [Fig. 12.39] and a Venus and Adonis by Salviati (probably Giuseppe Porta, rather than his teacher Francesco Salviati). The latter is complemented by a smaller ‘Quadro’ (a panel?) of Venus and Cupid of the same master’s hand. As we have seen, the reported inscriptions of the following two paintings by Paolo Veronese allow us to identify them with certainty with Veronese’s two huge and splendid allegories, The Choice between Virtue and Vice and Wisdom and Strength, that have always remained together [Figs. 12.33 and 12.34]. All these paintings were of large size, they were all indicated as ‘grosses Tuch’ (‘large canvas’) , ‘grosses Stück’ (‘large piece’) or ‘grosses Quadro’ (‘large painting’—here, in contrast to ‘Tuch’, possibly indicating a panel?). Most of the following items lack that appellation, and were probably of middling size, ex- cept for the few cabinet pieces which were described as ‘kleine Ritratti’ (small portraits) or ‘klein Tafelein’ (small panel). They include a number of works by Titian or perhaps from his workshop: two history pieces representing Mount Parnassus and Apollo and Daphne, which are difficult to identify, since this specific theme is not found in Titian’s existing oeuvre, and a number of prob- ably half-length human figures (‘ritratti’), representing a Turkish prince, a St Sebastian holding arrows—perhaps a painting similar to the small head now attributed to Giorgione in Vienna? [Fig. 12.42]—and a personification of Vani- tas, the latter perhaps to be related to the female figures with mirrors in Paris and in Munich [Fig. 12.40]. Figures ��.37–��.38 Jacopo da Ponte (Bassano): The animals entering Noah’s Ark and The Israelites drinking the miraculous water; both Madrid, Museo del Prado.