Rebecca at the Well

This unpublished panel is a characteristic work of the Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend, an anonymous Florentine painter in the circle of Bartolommeo di Giovanni, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Sandro Botticelli. The artistic personality of the Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend was independently recognized by Everett Fahy and Federico Zeri at roughly the same moment in time. Fahy originally dubbed this artist the Master of the Ryerson Panels but later adopted Zeri’s name for the artist, which derives from his eponymous works from the Samuel H. Kress collection (Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago). Fahy posited that the artist was most likely a pupil of Ghirlandaio active from roughly 1480 to 1510, and that he may be identifiable with one of Ghirlandaio’s documented pupils to whom no works have been securely attributed, such as Niccolò Cieco, Jacopo dell’Indaco, or Baldino Baldinetti. The present painting was first attributed to this master by Everett Fahy in 1989, who became aware of its existence only after publishing his definitive studies on the artist (E. Fahy, Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandaio, New York and London, 1976, pp. 11-20, notes 17-23; pp. 103-112f, nos. 1-25; and Everett Fahy, “The “Master of the Apollo and Daphne,” The Art Institute of Chicago: Museum Studies, no. 3, 1968, pp. 21-41). More recently, Dr. Nicoletta Pons has proposed that the Master is identifiable with Giovanni di Benedetto Cianfanini (1462-1542), a documented pupil of Botticelli who later encountered Lorenzo di Credi and Fra’ Bartolomeo (Nicoletta Pons, “Importanti opere perdute di pittori fiorentini a Pistoia e una aggiunta al Maestro di Apollo e Dafne,” in C. d’Afflitto et al., Fra Paolino e la Pittura a Pistoia nel Primo ‘500, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1996, pp. 51-52.).

The surviving body of work by the Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend is largely composed of series of panels treating the same theme. In addition to the works illustrating the legend of Apollo and Daphne, there are also series on the themes of Susanna and the Elders and the story of Saint Joseph, among others. The subject of the present panel is drawn from Genesis 24, the story of Isaac. It is possible that our painting relates to another work by the artist depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac formerly in the collection of E. A. McGuire in Dublin, Ireland (Fototeca Zeri, entry number 12950), and that these two panels were originally part of a decorative scheme based on the story of Isaac.

Although the Master’s paintings of this type have traditionally been considered painted fronts of wedding chests, known as cassoni, the scale of these paintings and the fact that they are often part of a series indicates that they are more likely spalliera panels—paintings set into furniture or the wainscoting of a room. The biblical episode depicted in this painting centers on the theme of marriage, which suggests that this work was likely commissioned for the domestic interior of a newly married couple. The Master has transcribed into paint even the minute details of this Old Testament story, in which Abraham sends a servant to travel by camel to the land of his father to seek out a wife for his son Isaac. The servant is here shown at the well where he encounters Rebecca. Following the biblical account, Rebecca is shown offering water to the servant and his animals—which she delicately pours into a basin—and he in turn offers her jewelry.

A recent cleaning of the painting has revealed the camel paddle leaning against a rock in the lower left, which had been obscured by old overpaint, as well as several pentimenti in the camel’s feet, Rebecca’s pitcher, her proper left shoulder, and the hill in the upper right. Also now visible is the artist’s underdrawing for a structure in the right background, which ultimately was excluded from the final composition.

A NOTE ON THE PROVENANCE:

This painting was in the collection of Dr. James Henry Lancashire in Massachusetts in the early twentieth century. The only known documentation of the work is an image made of it during a photographic campaign undertaken by the Frick Art Reference Library in 1925. Although it was then classified as Umbrian School, Everett Fahy encountered the photograph in the Frick photographic archive in 1977 (shortly after the publication of his dissertation on the followers of Ghirlandaio) and recognized this work as by the Master of the Apollo and Daphne Legend (E. Fahy, written communication, 24 September 1989).

The painting does not appear in either of the sales of the Lancashire collection (American Art Association, New York, 21 March 1936; and Sotheby’s, Parke Bernet, New York, 15 February 1940). It may have descended in the family before reappearing in 2018. Although nothing is known about the provenance of the painting prior to it being in the Lancashire collection in 1925, it is possible that the painting was acquired from the Florentine dealer and tapestry restorer Giuseppe Salvadori. The only other known early Italian paintings from the Lancashire collection were purchased from Salvadori between 1924 and 1925 (American Art Association, New York, 21 March 1936, lots 15, 16, and 20). It is therefore likely that the present panel was purchased from Salvadori as well.