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Follower of Jacopo da Ponte, called Bassano, circa 1600The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria oil on canvas 82 x 96.5cmFootnote: Provenance: Collection of Sam. S. Macdonald, Barguillean, Argyllshire, and thence by descent Literature: Alessandro Ballarin, Jacopo Bassano, 2 vols., Padua, 1995-1996, illus. no. 623 The present composition derives from Bassano’s painting of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria, dated to circa 1553, of which there are two autograph versions, one in a private collection (see Literature, Ballarin, no. 587) and the other, a fragment, in The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut (ibid, no. 590). The figure of St. Joseph in the present painting is, however, more closely indebted to that in Bassano’s Adoration of the Shepherds of circa 1546, in the Royal Collections at Hampton Court (ibid, no. 453). Another version of the present composition, by a different hand and presumably of a later date, was sold in Padua in 1976 (ibid, no. 624). The present work Ballarin proposes is of late 16th century origin.CONDITION REPORT:Oil on canvas which has an early lining. The stretcher is old and has been extended at all corners. The canvas tension is slightly slack with general undulations across the surface. At the left hand side is a large vertical tear with cracked paint. There is also a damage at the centre of the lower edge which has been patched from the reverse. The paint layer has a general network of age cracks, some of which are slightly raised. There are localised areas of flaking paint, caused by impact. There are areas of overpaint across the surface the extent of which is difficult to determine due to old varnish and a very thick layer of dust which covers the surface. 

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