RIHA Journal 0295 | 3 February 2023

Notes on the Early Provenance of Paolo Veronese’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison

Orsolya Bubryák

Abstract
This article provides information about the early provenance of the Paolo Veronese painting entitled Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painting can most likely be traced back to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Augsburg. Descriptions that match the Veronese painting are found in the inventories of works of art of two very wealthy Augsburg merchants: one is in the post mortem inventory of Octavian Secundus Fugger (ca. 1600/1601), the other in a list of works of art from the collection of Hans Steininger (ca. 1641/42). Octavian Secundus Fugger only occasionally bought paintings from Venice, never seeking to amass a systematic collection of art. The deeply religious Catholic merchant, who was a strong supporter of the Jesuits, hung his picture of Saint Catherine, along with other religious paintings, in the antechapel of his house, and it remained at this location until the early 17th century. The painting’s later owner, however, the Lutheran textile merchant Hans Steininger, was a highly educated art collector who created one of the most illustrious collections in Augsburg. In his Kunstkammer, Veronese’s painting was displayed in the company of mythological female figures, nymphs, and Venus, accompanied by a whole series of paintings by renowned artists such as Hans von Aachen, Christoph Amberger, Paris Bordone, Hans Burgkmair, Joseph Heintz the Elder and Titian. Steininger’s collection was dispersed after his death, but many of the paintings he owned can still be identified. Veronese’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria may be one of them.

Octavian Secundus Fugger’s Venetian paintings

[1] In the sixteenth century there were thriving commercial and artistic connections between Augsburg and Venice, and the Fugger family, as the wealthiest merchant family in Augsburg, played an active role in this.1 It is known that several members of the family purchased works of art from Venice, if not in person, then through their Venetian agents, and they also sought to engage Italian artists to come and decorate their residences.2 Even those family members who are not regarded by researchers as art collectors per se found it obvious to turn to Venice whenever they wanted to buy paintings. Octavian Secundus Fugger (1549–1600) (Fig. 1) did so around 1586 when he converted his house on the Weinmarkt, acquired a few years earlier, and wanted to decorate his chapel, which was intended to be the main feature of the house. While the chapel’s altar was adorned with a Netherlandish altarpiece, he had religious paintings brought from Venice to be hung in the antechapel.3 He ordered a total of seven paintings from Venice in 1586, which were delivered in two consignments in May and November that year. Among the paintings were Jacopo Tintoretto’s Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Paolo Veronese’s work depicting Saint Catherine of Alexandria, as well as scenes from the Old Testament (from the Book of Exodus) and an Annunciation by Paolo Fiammingo [Pauwels Franck].

1 Portrait of Octavian Secundus Fugger (1549–1600), after Hans von Aachen, in: Dominicus Custos, ed., Atrium Heroicum Caesarum, Regum Aliarumque Summatum, Ac Procerum, vol. 2: Eiconum XXXI, Augsburg 1600, n.p. The British Museum, London, inv. no. 1873,0510.2816 (photograph © Trustees of the British Museum)

[2] The purchase was transacted by the Ott brothers, the Fugger family’s agents in Venice, who were also entrusted with matters concerning the art market.4 Although Octavian Secundus Fugger played no personal part in selecting the paintings, he probably was familiar with all the artists: Tintoretto had already produced works for Augsburg, including some commissioned by other members of the Fugger family;5 Veronese had painted allegorical compositions for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, which was well known to the Fuggers;6 and Octavian Secundus’s father-in-law, Hans Fugger, had already purchased several cycles of paintings by Paolo Fiammingo at that time.7 The time span between Octavian Secundus’ order and the delivery of the works was probably not a long one, as according to Norbert Lieb, who published the data, some of the paintings likely came from the stock held by the local workshops.8 In Lieb’s view, only the series of Old Testament paintings by Paolo Fiammingo were made especially for Octavian Secundus. However, it could also be that these were a second version of a cycle that the painter had originally conceived for another client. For example, we know that the cycle of the Five Senses that Paolo Fiammingo delivered to Hans Fugger in Augsburg were the master’s own copies of a series of paintings he had originally created for Pietro Gradenigo.9

[3] Octavian Secundus Fugger was not an art collector in the true sense of the word, as he did not aim to build his collection systematically, nor did he establish a special room in his home for displaying his works of art.10 His post mortem inventory, however, compiled in 1600/01, demonstrates that he decorated the rooms of his home, especially his chapel and its garden-facing antechapel (“Capell Cammer”), with a wealth of paintings. The high esteem in which the paintings he ordered from Venice were held is proven by the fact that they were hung in ornate intarsia frames and that the inventory gives the names of the artists almost exclusively for these works:11 Besides the Venetian painters and the artists of the altarpiece in the antechapel, Christoph Schwarz and Peter Candid, the only other name mentioned in the inventory of the house is Lucas Cranach (as Lucas of Nuremberg), although his paintings were probably not Octavian Secundus’s own acquisitions, but were inherited from his grandfather.12 This is not to say that the paintings in the other parts of the house were inferior, only that the compiler of the inventory did not have the information at hand, or did not consider it important to include the names of the painters of the other works. For example, the artist who painted the portrait of Octavian Secundus was not named, even though it was no less a master than Hans von Aachen.13

[4] The objects in Octavian Secundus’s estate can still be traced for a while, as the inventory of 1600/01 contains marginal notes dating from the period between 1602 and 1615, which shed light on the fate of certain works of art or other valuables which were removed from the house. It is from here that we know, for example, that Marx Fugger purchased the silverware from the chapel, and that certain of the family portraits were transported to Schloss Kirchberg.14 The last note in the margins dates from 1615.15 The Venetian paintings in the antechapel are presumed to have still hung in situ at that time, as the inventory does not mention any change to the fittings there.

[5] The next inventory of the Fugger house was not made until half a century after the death of Octavian Secundus, in 1645, following several changes of ownership.16 There is no trace of the afore-mentioned Venetian paintings in this inventory. Since these had been the most valuable paintings in the house and the items cannot be identified in the inventories for any of the other Fugger residences, it is reasonable to assume that they were sold. This is hinted at by the fact that in 1611 the Fugger house was visited by the art dealer Philipp Hainhofer, probably in connection with a planned sale of assets from the house.17 In 1615 the heirs of Octavian Secundus mortgaged the property, and in 1622 the property was finally sold to a collateral relative, Otto Heinrich Fugger.18 I would tend to assume that the Venetian paintings were sold at some point in the intervening period. In 1632, when Swedish forces stormed the city, the house on the Weinmarkt was ransacked, and the building became uninhabitable for a while.19 Had the paintings still been in the premises at that time, they probably would have been destroyed along with the furnishings.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison by Paolo Veronese

[6] The majority of the Venetian paintings inventoried in the antechapel are currently considered lost.20 Tintoretto’s Stigmatisation of Saint Francis,21 as well as Paolo Fiammingo’s cycle of Old Testament paintings22 and Annunciation, remain unidentified. The seventh piece, however, Veronese’s Saint Catherine, can, in my opinion, be connected with a painting that still survives. The estate inventory of Octavian Secundus Fugger (1600/01) provides a rather detailed description of the painting, including iconographic characteristics that are sufficiently rare to allow us to narrow down our research within Veronese’s œuvre: "A likeness of Saint Catherine in oil on canvas, in which the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, stands above her, in an inlaid wooden frame, made by Paolo Veronese in Venice."23

[7] While contemporary biographies and inventories mention quite a number of "pictures of Saint Catherine" attributed to Veronese or his workshop, the vast majority of these are multi-figural compositions and depict The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine or The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine.24 On those rare occasions in which Saint Catherine is shown alone, she is not accompanied by a dove.25 Octavian Secundus Fugger’s description, on the other hand, clearly fits Veronese’s autograph painting of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison (Fig. 2) that is now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,26 which shows Saint Catherine holding the martyr’s palm, with the dove of the Holy Spirit above her left shoulder.

2 Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari), Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison, ca. 1585, oil on canvas, 116.2 × 83.8 cm (45¾ × 33 in.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 1999.225 (photograph © The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The painting first appeared in 1992 at auction in Christie’s New York from a continental European private collection, and in 1999 it was anonymously donated to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.27 The intarsia frame mentioned in Octavian Secundus Fugger’s estate inventory is no longer there. Based on its stylistic features, the painting is dated in the literature to around 1580–85, which is in line with the working hypothesis that it is the same painting transported from Venice by the Ott brothers in 1586.

[8] From the 1570s onwards, Veronese made a conscious effort to expand his sales to the north, beyond the Alps. The paintings intended for the art market were reproduced by his workshop, and owing to their collaborative methods the result was always of high quality, although at times the works were made without Veronese’s personal participation.28 This caused his paintings to be less favoured among Northern art collectors in the first decades, although by the 1580s and 1590s there was a discernible increase in the demand for his works.29 At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Veronese was undoubtedly among the most popular Venetian painters, and in the middle of the century, Paolo del Sera succeeded in selling a Veronese painting at a higher price than one by Titian.30 Although the artist sought to appeal to princely commissioners primarily with allegorical scenes, there proved to be an ever-growing demand for elegant female figures (saints and martyrs, as well as biblical and mythological characters) depicted either alone or as main protagonists of narrative scenes.31 Octavian Secundus Fugger’s purchase in 1586 fits in with this process, although in his case, the choice of subject was presumably influenced more by devotional criteria than those of an art collector.

[9] There are no known painted copies of the composition of Saint Catherine, nor prints made after it, and Veronese’s early biographers do not mention the painting. All this indicates that it must have left Venice at a very early time. The only known copy after the painting is a drawing (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, Fig. 3),32 which is believed to have been made while the original painting was still in Veronese’s workshop, and was presumably the work of one of Veronese’s workshop assistants or a pupil.33

3 Claudio Ridolfi (attr.) after Paolo Veronese, Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison, 1585, pen, sepia watercolour, white lead, traces of black pencil, cerulean paper, 263 × 195 mm (10⅜ × 7⅝ in.). Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, n. 1855 F (photograph © Cristian Ceccanti / Ministero Beni e Attività Culturali)

The use of drawings played an important part in Veronese’s workshop practice,34 as proven by, among other things, the copious modelli, bozzetti and preparatory sketches that survived in his estate.35 This particular drawing, however, is not regarded as a preparatory sketch, but as a kind of reminder (ricordo), executed on the basis of a finished painting. Sergio Marinelli attributes the drawing to one of Veronese’s pupils, Claudio Ridolfi (1570–1644).36 We do not know exactly when Ridolfi began to study in Veronese’s workshop, but based on his biographical data, a start date of around 1585 seems conceivable.37 If we accept the hypothesis of the circumstances of the execution of the drawing, its terminus ante quem can be determined: November 1586, when the painting was transported to Augsburg.

The Kunstkammer of Hans Steininger

[10] Since the provenance of the painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is recorded only from the late twentieth-century, we cannot trace the work’s origins any further back. However, Veronese’s Saint Catherine might have been present in Augsburg until the mid-seventeenth century, though not in the Fugger house but instead in the possession of another Augsburg merchant, Hans Steininger (1552–1634), and later in the house of his son, Jeremias Steininger (1591–1657). Though less well-known today, Steininger’s Kunstkammer was one of the most prestigious collections of its times in Augsburg, praised, among others, by Philipp Hainhofer, Joachim von Sandrart and Paolo del Sera.38

[11] Hans Steininger came from the Bavarian town of Braunau am Inn and he was twelve years old when he moved to Augsburg, serving as an apprentice to the textile merchant Hans Oesterreicher, who soon sent the young man on a long study trip (1569–1577) to Italy, to learn the trade.39 Upon his return, he married into the family, and through his marriage he received the citizenship of Augsburg and was able to lay the foundations for his own business. By 1618, judging from his wealth statement of that year, he had risen to become one of the richest citizens of Augsburg, and only the Fugger family paid a higher rate of taxes.40

[12] In parallel with the expansion of his textile business, in the 1610s he began to amass not only a collection of art but also a substantial library.41 While his son, Jeremias Steininger, sold the books shortly after his father’s death, he did not begin to part with the works of art until the 1640s, and objects from the collection were still appearing for sale on the art market at the end of that decade.42 The high quality of the Kunstkammer is proven by the fact that some of its pieces were purchased by the greatest collectors of the day, including Emperor Ferdinand III, Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria, Queen Christina of Sweden, and Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici.43

[13] Around 1641–1642, the Steininger collection was first offered for sale to Emperor Ferdinand III. The list compiled at that time consists of 66 lots comprising around a hundred artworks in total (mostly paintings, but also sculptures, drawings and majolica ware),44 including a picture that could have formerly graced the home of Octavian Secundus Fugger: "A Saint Catherine by Paolo Veronese, full-length, 6 by 4 spans, in an all’antica inlaid frame, for 120 ƒ. [florins]."45 Not only do the artist’s name and subject of the painting (full-length depiction of Saint Catherine) match those in the description in the post mortem inventory of Octavian Secundus, the list also mentions the fine intarsia of the wooden frame, which, as we have seen, was used for all seven of the paintings purchased from Venice for the Fugger house.46 The Steininger inventory also provides us with the approximate dimensions of the painting: the size of the frame and picture together was estimated (by eye) at 6 × 4 spans, approx. 135 × 90 cm (53¼ × 35½ in.). The measurements of the canvas in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, without frame, are 116.2 × 83.8 cm (45¾ × 33 in.), which at least does not exclude the possibility that this is the same work.

The origin of Steininger’s collection

[14] The available data on Steininger’s collection do not contradict a possible Fugger provenance. Hans Steininger built his collection in the 1610s and 1620s, most likely from works that were obtainable locally. This is at least what we can conclude from the fact that the collection was closely associated with the city – the majority of the sixteenth-century paintings were by masters who had lived in Augsburg, at least for a while (Hans Burgkmair, Christoph Amberger, Hans Rottenhammer, Hans von Aachen, Joseph Heintz the Elder), and even among the Venice school, which constituted a substantial part of the collection, several artists had visited the city in person (Titian, Paris Bordone, Lambert Sustris).

[15] While Philipp Hainhofer, who in the early 1610s wrote about several items that he had seen in Steininger’s collection, regarded him fundamentally as a collector of 'modern' paintings,47 the list of 1641–1642 presented to the Holy Roman Emperor is already clearly dominated by 'old' (sixteenth-century) works. Therefore the owner’s preference for the works he collected must have undergone a change sometime after the 1610s. Joachim von Sandrart, who visited Steininger in his home in Augsburg in 1629, devoted most of his praise to the collector’s sixteenth-century Italian paintings.48 Leopoldo de’ Medici’s Venetian agent, Paolo del Sera, also admired the collection for its old paintings: "The afore-mentioned Stainninger had a very famous studio of old paintings in Augsburg."49

[16] It can therefore be assumed that between 1610 and 1629, Steininger came to own a collection that was comprised predominantly of older works. Thanks to his trading activities, he could easily have acquired these works directly from Italy, but bearing in mind that his collection was strongly oriented towards Augsburg, it seems more logical to look for the provenance of the works he owned in the collection of a local patrician family. Another argument in favour of this possibility is the fact that Steininger – unlike Octavian Secundus Fugger – seems to have relied neither on advisors nor on agents when purchasing his works of art. If he had no way of buying directly from the painter, and thereby ensuring that the work was original, then he preferred to buy only paintings that he could see in advance with his own eyes.50 Consequently, I am led to assume that he must have acquired the majority of his Venetian Cinquecento paintings directly in Augsburg.

[17] Steininger is highly unlikely to have inherited art from his own family. As we have seen, the Steiningers were not part of Augsburg’s wealthy elite. He may, of course, have inherited old works of art from his wife’s family, but the Oesterreichers, despite being one of Augsburg’s wealthiest mercantile dynasties, are not referred to by any written source as art collectors. The most we can assume in this regard is that Steininger may have acquired a few portraits of local citizens.51

[18] At the top of a list of old patrician families of Augsburg that come into question as sources for artworks, is the Fugger family – not least because of their close contacts with Venice. It is unsurprising that this provenance has already been suggested in relation to other paintings in Steininger’s possession: The Steininger collection featured a noticeably high number of paintings by Paris Bordone (nine in total), including a cycle on a mythological theme. As sixteenth-century sources already mention that a large number of works by Paris Bordone were owned by the Fuggers in Augsburg,52 the works of art in Steininger’s possession have long been retraced by researchers to the Fugger family.53

[19] Although the earlier reconstruction of the cycle of mythological paintings has recently been shown to be based on erroneous information, and certain works were mistakenly identified as pieces from the Steininger collection,54 a link with the Fuggers does not necessarily have to be rejected. It is true that there are no known written sources that support this connection with regard to the Bordone paintings; moreover, it seems unlikely, based on the data currently available, that any collection belonging to someone from the Fugger family subsequently formed the core of Steininger’s Kunstkammer. Nevertheless, based on the findings presented here, the hypothesis that the two Veronese pictures of Saint Catherine described in the estate inventory of Octavian Secundus Fugger and in the list of Hans Steininger’s collection are one and the same, is plausible and deserves further explorations.

Summary

[20] In this study, I argue that the painting of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison by Paolo Veronese, now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in which the saint is depicted with the martyr’s palm and with the dove of the Holy Spirit, is the same work that was purchased from Veronese’s workshop in 1586 on commission from Octavian Secundus Fugger, and transported to Augsburg in November that year. A precise description of the painting can be read in the post mortem inventory of the merchant’s estate, compiled in 1600/01, denoting a relatively rare iconographical type, in which Saint Catherine appears together with the dove of the Holy Spirit. Based on my assumptions, at some point between 1615 and 1622, the painting passed from the Fugger house into the possession of another Augsburg merchant, Hans Steininger, from whose estate the work was sold, along with other pieces from his collection, during the 1640s and 1650s. As there are no known data concerning the later fate of the painting in Augsburg, while the modern provenance of the painting in the museum is known only as far back as the end of the twentieth century, the paintings referred to in the sources and the work in The Metropolitan Museum of Art can only hypothetically be regarded as one and the same. We can only hope that further data will come to light in the future regarding the approximately 350-year-long history of the painting during the intervening period.

Acknowledgments
This study was conducted as part of research project no. 129362 of the NKFIH (Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office). My research visit in Germany was facilitated with a grant from DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). I am greatly indebted to Dorothea and Peter Diemer for their support during my stay in Munich.

Reviewers
Giorgio Tagliaferro, University of Warwick
Claudia Terribile, independent scholar, Rome

Translator
Steve Kane, Budapest

Local Editor
Judit Faludy, Institute of Art History, RCH, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest

License
The text of this article is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0

1 Bernd Roeck, ed., Venedig und Oberdeutschland in der Renaissance. Beziehungen zwischen Kunst und Wirtschaft, Sigmaringen 1993 (= Centro tedesco di studi veneziani, Studi, 9); Klaus Bergdolt and Jochen Brüning, eds., Kunst und ihre Auftraggeber im 16. Jahrhundert. Venedig und Augsburg im Vergleich, Berlin 1997 (= Colloquia Augustana, 5); Bernard Aikema and Beverly Louise Brown, eds., Renaissance Venice and the North. Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer and Titian, Milan 1999 (especially the studies by Bernd Roeck, Bruno Bushart, Bernard Aikema and Andrew John Martin); Andrew John Martin, "I rapporti con i Paesi Bassie la Germania. Pittori, agenti e mercanti, collezionisti", in: Michel Hochmann, Rosella Lauber and Stefania Mason, eds., Il collezionismo d’arte a Venezia. Dalle origini al Cinquecento, Venice 2008, 143-163; Mark Häberlein, "Der Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venedig und der Italienhandel oberdeutscher Kaufleute (ca. 1450–1650)", in: Hans-Michael Körner and Florian Schuller, eds., Bayern und Italien. Kontinuität und Wandel ihrer traditionellen Bindungen, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2010, 124-139: 128-130.

2 Georg Lill, Hans Fugger (1531–1598) und die Kunst. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Spätrenaissance in Süddeutschland, Leipzig 1908 (= Studien zur Fugger-Geschichte, 2); Norbert Lieb, Die Fugger und die Kunst. Im Zeitalter der hohen Renaissance, München 1958 (= Studien zur Fugger-Geschichte, 14); Klára Garas, "Die Fugger und die venezianische Kunst", in: Roeck (1993) 123-129; Dorothea Diemer, "Hans Fuggers Sammlungskabinette", in: Renate Eikelmann, ed., "Lautenschlagen lernen und lieben." Die Fugger und die Musik. Anton Fugger zum 500. Geburtstag, Augsburg 1993, 13-32; Mark Häberlein, Die Fugger. Geschichte einer Augsburger Familie (1367–1650), Stuttgart 2006; Johannes Burkhardt and Franz Karg, eds., Die Welt des Hans Fugger, Augsburg 2007 (= Materialien zur Geschichte der Fugger); Sylvia Wölfle, Die Kunstpatronage der Fugger, 1560–1618, Augsburg 2009.

3 The name of the painter who made the altarpiece is not given in the inventory: "ein gemalte Tafel, vonn ainem niderlennder gar künstlich gemahlet". Norbert Lieb, Octavian Secundus Fugger (1549–1600) und die Kunst, Tübingen 1980, 277, no. 1050. On the chapel, see also Ibid., 16-18; on the Venetian paintings, Ibid., 69-70.

4 On the role of the Ott family, see Andrew John Martin, "Quellen zum Kunsthandel um 1550–1600: die Firma Ott in Venedig", in: Kunstchronik 48 (1995), no. 11, 535-539; Sibylle Backmann, "Kunstagenten oder Kaufleute? Die Firma Ott im Kunsthandel zwischen Oberdeutschland und Venedig (1550–1650)", in: Bergdolt/Brüning (1997), 175-197.

5 Andrew John Martin, "Jacopo Tintoretto: dipinti per committenti tedeschi", in: Paola Rossi and Lionello Puppi, eds., Jacopo Tintoretto nel quarto centenario della morte: Atti del convegno internazionale di studi (Venezia, 24–26 novembre 1994), Padova 1996 (= Quaderni di Venezia arti, 3), 97-100: 99; Andrew John Martin, "Augsburg, Prague and Venice at the End of the Century", in: Aikema/Brown (1999), 614-658: 621.

6 Martin (2008), 147-154.

7 Lill (1908), 138-148; Stefania Mason Rinaldi, "Paolo Fiammingo", in: Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte 11 (1978), 45-80; Eliška Fučíková and Lubomír Konečný, "Einige Bemerkungen zur 'Gesichts-Allegorie' von Paolo Fiammingo und zu seinen Aufträgen für die Fugger", in: Arte veneta 37 (1983), 67-76; Martin (1999), 618-621; Dorothea Diemer, "Hans Fugger und die Kunst", in: Burkhardt/Karg (2007), 165-176.

8 There are, however, no specific data to support this.

9 Fučíková/Konečný (1983), 69.

10 Lieb (1980), 150-160.

11 Lieb (1980), 74, nos. 1012-1018. The intarsia frame was made by Hans Schertlin, see ibid., 18.

12 Lieb (1980), 34.

13 Lieb (1980), 56, and no. 846.

14 Lieb (1980), 275-276, 290.

15 One of the chapel paraments was donated by Philipp Fugger at that time to the Capuchins; see Lieb (1980), 277, no. 1042.

16 The estate inventory of Otto Heinrich Fugger (1645): Dillingen a. d. Donau, Fürstlich und gräflich Fugger‘sches Familien- und Stiftungsarchiv, Akten, 1.2.76.

17 Oscar Doering, Des Augsburger Patriciers Philipp Hainhofer Beziehungen zum Herzog Philipp II. von Pommern-Stettin. Correspondenzen aus den Jahren 1610–1916 (= Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit, N. F., VI), Vienna 1894, 91-92.

18 Lieb (1980), 18. On Otto Heinrich Fugger’s ownership: Stephanie Haberer, Ott Heinrich Fugger (1592–1644). Biographische Analyse typologischer Handlungsfelder in der Epoche des Dreißigjährigen Krieges (= Veröffentlichungen der Schwäbischen Forschungsgemeinschaft, ser. 4, vol. 29 / Studien zur Fugger-Geschichte, 38), Augsburg 2004, 381-393; on the building’s furnishings and fittings: Haberer (2004), 411-416.

19 Haberer (2004), 385.

20 Lieb (1980), 163; Garas (1993), 128; Wölfle (2009), 271.

21 Martin (1996), 99; Stefania Mason, "Tintoretto the Venetian", in: Robert Echols and Frederick Ilchman, eds., Tintoretto. Artist of Renaissance Venice, New Haven/London 2018, 36-61: 59.

22 The cycle of Old Testament paintings is not mentioned, for example, by Mason Rinaldi (1978); Bert W. Meijer, "Paolo Fiammingo tra indigeni e 'forestieri' a Venezia", in: Prospettiva 32 (1983), 20-32; Andrew John Martin, "Erdzeitalter, nicht der 'Frühling'. Hans Fugger und die Zyklen Paolo Fiammingos", in: Burkhardt/Karg (2007), 197-216. Certain paintings by Paolo Fiammingo are known, however, whose themes match those found in the inventory, such as two paintings depicting scenes from Exodus (Ex. 16: God feeds the Israelites with manna and quails during their time in the desert) in the Fondazione Cini, Venice, and in a private collection. The Gathering of Manna in the Fondazione Cini (n. 2746 bis) has long been known (see Mason Rinaldi [1978], 76), while A Storm of Quails Gathers over the Israelites’ Camp came up for auction at Sotheby’s (London) in 2012 (https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/old-master-british-paintings-day-sale-l12034/lot.146.html) and again at the Dorotheum (Vienna) in 2016 (https://www.dorotheum.com/de/l/1385398/). The dimensions of the paintings also correlate, with the painting in Venice measuring 116 × 172 cm, and the one most recently auctioned at the Dorotheum measuring 113.5 × 174.5 cm. I am not aware, however, that they were ever considered as parts of a series, nor that their provenance was traced to Augsburg.

23 Lieb (1980), 275. "Ain Tafel vonn Öelfarben auf duech Sanct Catharina Bildtnuß, wie der Hayliggaist Inn gestalt ainer tauben, ob Ir steet In ein Rahm Inn eingelegtem Holcz, gemacht Paul Verones zue Venedig."

24 Carlo Ridolfi, Vita di Paolo Caliari veronese, celebre pittore, Venice 1646; Carlo Ridolfi, Le Maraviglie dell'Arte: Ovvero Le vite degli illustri pittori Veneti e dello stato [1648], ed. by Detlev von Hadeln, Berlin 1914; Marco Boschini, La carta del navegar pitoresco. Dialogo tra un senator venetian deletante, e un professor de pitura, soto nome d’Ecelenza, e de Compare [...], Venice 1660; Pietro Caliari, Paolo Veronese. Sua vita e sue opere, Rome 1888. Among the works that are known solely from written sources, there are only occasionally compositions which, according to their descriptions, depicted the saint as an independent figure. Cf. List of lost works in: Terisio Pignatti and Filippo Pedrocco, Veronese, 2 vols., Milan 1995, vol. 2, 530-550.

25 The figure of Saint Catherine kneeling in prayer can be seen in the work now attributed to Carlo Caliari in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence (inv. 1890, n. 890), purchased as by Veronese in 1664 by Leopoldo de’ Medici. Valentina Conticelli, Riccardo Gennaioli and Maria Sframeli, eds., Leopoldo de’Medici. Principe dei collezionisti, Livorno 2017, 554, no. 276. Catherine is depicted seated, with the crown and the martyr’s palm, but likewise without the dove, in a painting that is now considered an imitation painted in the manner of Veronese, but which was still attributed to the master as recently as the nineteenth century (Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv. DPG 207). There is also no dove in the half-length painting of Saint Catherine attributed to the Veronese workshop now in Barcelona (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Cambó bequest, inv. no. 64986).

26 New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 1999.225. Oil on canvas, 116.2 × 83.8 cm. Pignatti/Pedrocco (1995), II, 424-425, no. 316; "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1998–1999", in: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 57 (1999), no. 2, 6-84: 29 (Keith Christiansen); Andrea Bayer, North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Venice and the Veneto, New York 2005 (= The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 63 [2005], no. 1), 25. The attribution of the painting to Veronese has been disputed by Richard Cocke, whose correspondence on the matter (1996) can be accessed on the museum’s website: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438134, "References".

27 Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc., ed., Important Old Master Paintings: The Properties of the Estate of Theodore W. Bennett and Josephine C. Bennett […] and Various Properties, New York 1992, 70-71, no. 38.

28 Beverly Louise Brown, "Replication and the Art of Veronese", in: Studies in the History of Art 20 (1989), 111-124: 113; Linda Borean, "Collecting in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Venice: Originals, Copies, and 'Maniera di'", in: Frederick Ilchman, ed., Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese. Rivals in Renaissance Venice, exh. cat., Boston 2009, 61-71: 69; Linda Borean, "Tiziano, Tintoretto e Veronese tra originali e copie nel collezionismo veneziano del Seicento: spunti e prime riflessioni", in: Francesca Cappelletti et al., eds., Le due muse. Scritti d'arte, collezionismo e letteratura in onore di Ranieri Varese, Ancona 2012, 57-66: 60-62; Thomas Dalla Costa, "Paolo Veronese e la bottega. Le botteghe dei Caliari", in: Paola Marini and Bernard Aikema, eds., Paolo Veronese. L’illusione della realtà, Milan 2014, 314-326.

29 Klára Garas, "Veronese e il collezionismo del nord nel XVI–XVII secolo", in: Massimo Gerin, ed., Nuovi studi su Veronese, Venice 1990, 16-24.

30 Jennifer Fletcher, "Marco Boschini and Paolo del Sera: Collectors and Connoisseurs of Venice", in: Apollo 110 (1979), 416-424: note 19.

31 Laura de Fuccia, "Paolo Veronese, maestro di eleganza alla corte francese nel Seicento", in: Artibus et Historiae 35 (2014), no. 70, 123-139.

32 Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, n. 1855F.

33 Proposed by Keith Christiansen (1996), see https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438134, "References".

34 Richard Cocke, Veronese’s Drawings. A Catalogue Raisonné, London 1984; Brown (1989), 119; Diana Gisolfi, "Collaboration and Replicas in the Shop of Paolo Veronese and His Heirs", in: Artibus et Historiae 28 (2007), no. 55, 73-86; Dalla Costa (2014); Thomas Dalla Costa, "Drawings and Draughtsmanship in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Tintoretto and Veronese in Comparison", in: Artibus et Historiae 39 (2018), no. 78, 141-154.

35 Gregorio Gattinoni Rosolino, Inventario di una casa veneziana del secolo 17. (la casa degli eccellenti Caliari eredi di Paolo il Veronese), Mestre 1914.

36 Sergio Marinelli, Cinque secoli di disegno veronese, exh. cat., Florence 2000, 93-94 (= Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, 86). Richard Cocke, on the other hand, proposes a different pupil, namely Francesco Montemezzano, see https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438134, "References".

37 Grazia Calegari, "Claudio Ridolfi tra Veneto e Marche", in: Costanza Costanzi and Marina Massa, eds., Claudio Ridolfi. Un pittore veneto nelle Marche del ’600, Ancona 1994, 20-29: 20; Sergio Marinelli, "Claudio Ridolfi tra Jacopo Palma e Federico Barocci", in: Artibus et Historiae 35 (2014), no. 70, 197-209.

38 Doering (1894), 8; Rudolf Arthur Peltzer, ed., Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste von 1675. Leben der berühmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister; mit 140 Künstlerporträts und anderen Abbildungen, Munich 1925, 25, 320; Miriam FiletiMazza, ed., Il cardinal Leopoldo, vol. 1: Rapporti con il mercato veneto, Milan/Naples 1987 (= Archivio del collezionismo mediceo, 1), 411-412, app. II.

39 On the trading activities of the Oesterreicher company, see Robert Poppe, Die Augsburger Handelsgesellschaft Oesterreicher (1590–1618), Augsburg 1928 (= Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg, 2). Steininger’s stay in Italy is mentioned in: Johann Conrad Göbel, Mosis Longaeva Senectus. Das ist: Ein Christliche Leich-Sermon. [...] Bey der Leichbestättigung deß W. Edlen [...] Herren, Hans Stainingers [...], Augsburg 1634, 42.

40 Anton Mayr, Die großen Augsburger Vermögen in der Zeit von 1618 bis 1717, Augsburg 1931, 115 (= Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg, 4).

41 Hans Steininger’s library was said to be almost on a par with the famous libraries belonging to the Fugger and Welser families. Not long after Steininger’s death, his library was bought by the renowned bibliophile Augustus II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Wolf-Dieter Otte, "Johann Martin Hirt und die Augsburger Agentur 1647–1661", in: Jochen Brüning and Friedrich Niewöhner, eds., Augsburg in der Frühen Neuzeit. Beiträge zu einem Forschungsprogramm, Berlin 1995, 73 (= Colloquia Augustana, 1); Gerhard Seibold, Hainhofers "Freunde". Das geschäftliche und private Beziehungsnetzwerk eines Augsburger Kunsthändlers und politischen Agenten in der Zeit vom Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts bis zum Ausgang des Dreißigjährigen Krieges im Spiegel seiner Stammbücher, Regensburg 2014, 56.

42 The earliest known record of him selling paintings dates from June 1641, when, with imperial permission, he transported paintings to the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) in Regensburg with the aim of selling them: Erik Duverger, "Le commerce d'art entre la Flandre et l’Europe Centrale au XVIIe siècle. Notes et Remarques", in: György Rózsa, ed., Évolution générale et développements régionaux en histoire de l'art. Actes du XXIIe Congrès international d'histoire de l'art, Budapest 1969, Budapest 1972, vol. 2, 151-181: 172. In 1650, Queen Christina purchased an antique statue from the collection, see Hans Henrik Brummer, "An Antique from Queen Christina’s Collections in Stockholm", in: Konsthistorisk tidskrift 36 (1967), 134-135.

43 Emma Schwaighofer, "Auszüge aus den Hofzahlamtsrechnungen in der Nationalbibliothek. II. Teil (224-498)", in: Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, N. F. 12 (1938), 227-237: 232, reg. 372; Peter Diemer, "Materialien zu Entstehung und Ausbau der Kammergalerie Maximilians I. von Bayern", in: Hubert Glaser, ed., Quellen und Studien zur Kunstpolitik der Wittelsbacher vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, Munich 1980 (= Mitteilungen des Hauses der Bayerischen Geschichte, 1), 129-174: 158; Olof Granberg, Svenska konstsamlingarnas historia från Gustav Vasas tid till våra dagar, vol. I: Gustav Vasa – Kristina, Stockholm 1929, 68; Leopoldo de’ Medici did not purchase directly from Steininger’s descendants, but acquired a few pieces originating from Augsburg via his agent, Paolo del Sera. Among the works of art that ended up in the cardinal’s possession, Palma Vecchio’s alleged portrait of Violante also attracted the interest of Jules Mazarin. Cf. Fileti Mazza (1987), vol. 1, 411-412, app. II. The portrait is unidentified: Philip Rylands, Palma Vecchio, Cambridge, UK 1992, 326, no. X49. Boschini (1660), "Vento quinto", 368-369 makes mention of it, but it cannot be recognised in the estate inventory of Leopoldo de’ Medici (1675–1676).

44 Manuscript, entitled "Lista de diverse pitture […]", ca. 1641–1642, in: Vienna, Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv. The full text of the list, with identifications of additional pictures, is currently being prepared for publication by the author of this present study. The list was originally undated, with the year 1643 subsequently added by the imperial administration. However, as Jeremias Steininger received payment for the selected pictures in April 1642, I consider it likely that the list was compiled around 1641–1642. For the payment, see Schwaighofer (1938), 232, reg. 372. Earlier literature specifying the date as 1639 – Klára Garas, "Opere di Paris Bordon di Augusta", in: Giorgio Fossaluzza and Eugenio Manzato, eds., Paris Bordon e il suo tempo. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Treviso 1987, 71-78: 78 – came about due to a printing error; for details, see Orsolya Bubryák, "Una serie di dipinti di Paris Bordone nella collezione di Hans Steininger. Reinterpretazione di una fonte d’archivio", in: Cecilia Mazzetti di Pietralata and Sebastian Schütze, eds., Nuove scenografie del collezionismo europeo tra Seicento e Ottocento. Attori, pratiche, riflessioni di metodo, Berlin/Boston 2022, 1-20 (= Sammler, Sammlungen, Sammlungskulturen in Wien und Mitteleuropa, Forschungen aus dem Vienna Center for the History of Collecting, 4).

45 "Una S. Caterina di Paolo Veronese figura intera di P. 6 e 4 con cornice intagliata al Antica ne dimanda – 120 ƒ.", in: "Lista de diverse pitture […]"(ca. 1641–1642), no. 33. In contemporary parlance, the term "figura intera" did not necessarily imply a standing figure, but could also refer to a seated or kneeling figure; several examples of this can be found, among others, in thepost mortem inventory of Leopoldo de’ Medici ("figura intera a sedere"), see Conticelli et al. (2017), 552-555.

46 Lieb (1980), 74, nos. 1012-1018.

47 At that time, he mostly bought works by contemporary artists (Paul Brill, Christoph Schwarz, Jan Brueghel the Younger etc.), see Doering (1894), 15, 40, 45, 47, 58, 65, 68, 92, 93, 118, 121, 129, 141.

48 "In der Gallerie daselbst [bei Hopfer], gleichwie auch bey dem kunstliebenden H. Steininger, hat Er von Titians, Paulo Verones, Tintoret, Bassan, Polidor und anderer fürtrefflichen Werken eine große Mänge beysammen gefunden." Peltzer (1925), 25.

49 "Il detto Stainninger aveva in Augusta uno studio famosissimo di pitture antiche." Letter from Paolo del Sera to Leopoldo de’ Medici dated 13 February 1648, in: Fileti Mazza (1987), vol. 1, 411-412, app. II.

50 In 1610 he visited the Ehinger Collection in Ulm for this purpose. Doering (1894), 17.

51 The paintings in question primarily concern works by Christoph Amberger: portraits of one member each of the Herwart, Jenisch, Groß, Degen and Wittich families. Steininger was directly related to the Jenisch family through his mother-in-law, Anna Jenisch. For Steininger’s family connections, see Wolfgang Reinhard, ed., Augsburger Eliten des 16. Jahrhunderts. Prosopographie wirtschaftlicher und politischer Führungsgruppen 1500–1620, Berlin 1996, 790-792.

52 In a letter written to Paris Bordone in 1548, Pietro Aretino mentioned that he had seen several works ("diversi quadri") in the Venetian home of Christoph Fugger. Pietro Aretino, Il Qvinto Libro Delle Lettere Di M. Pietro Aretino, Paris 1609, 64v. Two decades later, Vasari wrote about an unspecified number of paintings ("molte opere") by Bordone, worth 3000 scudi, which, according to Vasari, the artist had painted in the Fugger house in Augsburg. Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori scultori ed architettori […]. Con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi, vol. 7, Florence 1881, 464. There is no consensus as to whether Aretino and Vasari were in fact describing the same paintings or two separate sets of works.

53 Garas (1987), 74; Garas (1993), 125-126; Martin (2008), 157-158; Andrea Donati, Paris Bordone. Catalogo ragionato, Soncino 2014, 53-54.

54 The Steininger inventory that recently came to light unambiguously refutes the idea that the paintings identified by Klára Garas in the imperial collection in Prague could have stemmed from Steininger’s collection. For the new recommended reconstruction of the cycle, see Bubryák (2022).