The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired The Miracle of the Quails, a 16th-century work by the Venetian artist Jacopo Bassano (1510-1592). The monumental painting, which measures over seven feet (2.1 metres) wide, was commissioned in 1554 by the Venetian nobleman Domenico Priuli, probably together with another impressive work by Bassano, Lazarus and the Rich Man, which is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Jacopo Bassano, also known as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter from Bassano del Grappa, the place from which he took his surname. He was considered a great master of Venetian Renaissance painting, along with Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese and Lorenzo Lotto. He mostly created religious paintings including landscapes and genre scenes, often dealing with Biblical themes in rural settings.
The subject of the work acquired by the Getty Museum refers to an episode from the Old Testament. As Moses leads his people out of Egypt into the wilderness, birds miraculously fall from the sky to provide much-needed food for the Israelites. The painting depicts the scene in which the people are collecting the quail received as a gift, while Moses and his brother Aaron are found in the left foreground of the painting.
See also: The Enduring Appeal of Old Masters
“The Miracle of the Quails is an exceptional example of Bassano’s distinctive artistic style and his juxtaposing of historical subjects with everyday people in a state of poverty," said Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in a statement. "Although it is widely recognized as one of his most extraordinary artistic achievements, it has been rarely seen by scholars and never by the general public."
Bassano's work can be found in other prestigious collections like the National Gallery in London and the Galleria Borghese in Rome. His current auction record was set with The Adoration of the Shepherds, which sold for $8.9 million (£5.4 mil) at Christie's in 2014.
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