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| Artist | Attributed to Bassano, Francesco, II (Italian painter, 1549-1592) |
| Previous attributions | Previously attributed to Bassano, Jacopo, il vecchio (Italian painter and draftsman, ca. 1510-1592) Previously attributed to Bassano, Leandro (Italian painter, 1557-1622) |
| Title | The Return of the Prodigal Son |
| Alternative/previous titles | Il figlio prodigo |
| Date earliest | about 1577 |
| Date latest | 1592 |
| Material | oil on canvas |
| Measurements | 108 x 92 cm |
| Description | This painting is an interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15. 21-24). In the centre left the son, dressed in rags and barefoot, kneels before his father asking to be forgiven. The father, in contrast to the son, is dressed in a rich crimson robe and green overgarment. He reaches down to embrace his son in forgiveness. Two servants follow the father's instructions: to the left of the son, one brings him the 'best robe', and, in the bottom right, the other kills the fatted calf for the banquet. |
| Subject | animal (calf, cat, dog, monkey); figure; landscape; religion (Return of the Prodigal Son); buildings and gardens |
| Collection | Northampton Museum and Art Gallery |
| Current accession number | 1977.36 |
| Previous accession number(s) | P.37.1977 |
| Acquisition details | Purchased from T. Agnews and Sons 1977. |
| Provenance | Acquired by Samuel Loyd, Lord Overstone, about 1860; by descent to C. L. Loyd, Lockinge House, Wantage, Berkshire; bought by T. Agnews and Sons after 1967. |
| Principal exhibitions | Old Masters, London, 1867, cat. no. 80, as by Jacopo Bassano; Old Masters, Royal Academy, London, 1886, cat. no. 128, as by Leandro Bassano; Paintings and Tapestries from Lockinge House, Wantage, lent by Captain C. L. Loyd M.C., Birmingham, 1945, cat. no. 3, as by Jacopo da Bassano; Old Masters, T. Agnews and Sons, London, 1956, cat. no. 5; Mostra di Jacopo Bassano, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1957, cat. no. 86, as by Jacopo Bassano; T. Agnews and Sons' Summer Exhibition, London, 1975, cat. no. 23, as by Francesco or Leandro Bassano; Painters and Decorators, Northampton Central Museum, 1998, cat. no. 1. |
| Principal publications | Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters, London, 1886, p. 29; Temple, A. G., A Catalogue of the Pictures Forming the Collection of Lord and Lady Wantage, London, 1905, p. 6, ill. opp. p. 6; Graves, A., A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1913 - 1912, London, 1913, vol. 1, p. 43; Berenson, B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, p. 60, as by Jacopo Bassano; Catalogue of Paintings and Tapestries from Lockinge House, Wantage, Lent by Captain C. L. Loyd, MC , Birmingham, 1946, p. 3; T. Agnews and Sons, Old Masters, London, 1956, cat. no. 5; Zampetti, P., Jacopo Bassano: Catalogo della Mostra Jacopo Bassano, Venice, 1957, p. 206, as by Jacopo Bassano; Arslan, E., I Bassano, Milan, 1960, vol. 1, p. 384; Loyd, C. L., The Loyd Collection, 1967, p. 2, ill. 2. |
| Notes | Around 1577-78, the Bassanos formulated an extremely successful type of painting, in horizontal format (about 90 x 120 cm) with biblical themes in the background and everyday-life scenes in the foreground. The figures of the father and son in the Northampton canvas are based on those in the background of the painting in the Galleria Doria, Rome. See Rearick, W.R., 'Jacopo Bassano's Later Genre Paintings', Burlington Magazine, vol. 110, no. 782, May 1968, pp. 241-249, p. 245. Other versions of this composition include an example at the Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina; another at the Pardo, Paris, offered for sale in 1963; and a version formerly owned by the Marquis of Exeter. Several labels on stretcher, including a carrier's label inscribed: 'H. Wingate & Johnston Ltd./1516'. |
| Rights status | Northampton Museum and Art Gallery |
| Author | Pablo Pérez d'Ors; Dr Angela Smith |
