By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
By Kind Permission of a Private Collection
Claude Lorrain, Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula (1641), (Oil on canvas, 113 x 149?). National Gallery, Number 30. The painting is based on the story of Saint Ursula as narrated in The Golden Legend, itself using material from the Latin text of Jacobus de la Voragine's Legenda Aurea. Ursula, the daughter of a king of Britain or Brittany, was requested to marry a pagan prince. However, she postponed the wedding by embarking on a pilgrimage. A fleet of 11 ships departed, each carrying a thousand virgins. On their return from Rome the pilgrims met the Huns and following Ursula's refusal to marry their chief, she and her fellow pilgrims were slain. The National Gallery Catalogue observes that the painting was made with a pendant picture by Claude, Landscape with Saint George (Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum). It also notes that the painting's 'composition corresponds very closely with Liber Veritatis sheet no.54' and that an inscription on the picture 'identifies the patron as Fausto Poli (1581-1653), who became a cardinal in 1643, two years after the painting was completed. An engraving of the painting was included in the Ruskin Art Collection, Oxford and is listed in the catalogue for the collection. See Works, 21.42.
Claude Gellée (le Lorrain) 1600-82
Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula 1641
Oil on canvas, 113x149cm
Provenance: Fausto Poli, 1641; inherited by Cardinal Francesco Barberini, 1653; Desenfans' collection by 1786; bought with the J.J. Angerstein collection, 1824
Collection: National Gallery, London