The Gathering of Manna

Cornelius Vanderbilt, New York (until 1880)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," June 15–August 15, 1971, no catalogue.

Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 70, lists it as by an unknown Florentine painter from the third quarter of the sixteenth century; notes its similarities to the works by Vasari's followers Mirabello Cavalori and Girolamo Macchietti, and observes that some of the figures recall works by Pontormo and Andrea del Sarto.

Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 51.

John Shearman. Letter. November 1, 1965 [see Zeri and Gardner 1971], tentatively suggests that it is Florentine, about 1580–90, resembling the work of Poccetti.

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Florentine School. New York, 1971, pp. 210–11, ill., call it characteristic of the style of Aurelio Lomi around 1600, strikingly similar to the predella of the Adoration of the Magi altarpiece that he executed for the church of Santo Spirito in Florence; consider it very likely the model for a much larger mural decoration intended for the side of a church or chapel.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 107, 259, 605, as Attributed to Lomi.

Pierluigi Carofano in Aurelio Lomi: maniera e innovazione. Ospedaletto (Pisa), 1989, p. 230, no. 49, fig. 17, accepts Zeri's attribution to Lomi and his comparison to a predella of the Adoration of the Magi in Florence; hypothesizes that this painting is a preparatory sketch, which would correspond to Lomi's documented practice of sketching compositions directly on canvas and adding the colors later; suggests that this sketch might have been executed in conjunction with a decorative project for the Tribuna of Pisa, where Lomi worked about 1610; notes that a painting there of the same subject by Battista Franco was damaged by fire in 1595 and that the sketch may have been made for a painting to replace it.

Roberto Paolo Ciardi in Aurelio Lomi: maniera e innovazione. Ospedaletto (Pisa), 1989, pp. 149, 152, 155 n. 30, suggests that this work was done while Lomi was in Pisa, soon after he painted his first version of "St. Mary of Egypt" (private collection, Florence).

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 38, ill.