Act of Mercy: Giving Drink to the Thirsty
Artist
Bernardo Strozzi
(Italian, 1581-1644, active in Genoa and Venice)
Date1620s
CultureItalian
MediumOil on canvas
ClassificationPaintings
ProvenanceBruno Kern; (Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, 1937); by 1938, Oscar Bondy (1870–1944), Vienna and New York; seized in 1938 by Nazi forces; in 1948, restituted to Mrs. Oscar (Elisabeth) Bondy, New York; (sold Bondy sale, Kende Galleries at Gimbel Brothers, New York, 3 March 1949, lot 98, for $2,250). (Julius Weitzner, New York, 1949); sold to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, 1950.
Credit LineMuseum purchase, 1950
Object numberSN634
Bernardo Strozzi was primarily a painter of religious works, as he had spent twelve years of his life in a Capuchin monastery. Trained in the northern city of Genoa, he absorbed Italian as well as northern European techniques and traditions. His vibrant colors and heavy brushstrokes, typical of Genovese compositions, are particularly visible in the drapery of the female figure. This work depicts one of the seven acts of mercy described in the Gospel of Matthew, which also include feeding the hungry and burying the dead.
On View
On viewLocation
DimensionsFrame: 61 1/4 × 83 7/8 × 4 3/4 in., 83 lb. (155.5 × 213 × 12 cm, 37.6 kg)- Museum of Art, Gallery 11, Wall South
Image: 52 1/4 x 74 5/8 in. (132.7 x 189.5 cm)
last quarter of 1600s or first quarter of 1700s
