The first renaissance centurion: the National Gallery of Scotland's new exhibition of Venetian renaissance art in Scottish collections includes a major rediscovery, a painting by Paris Bordon from Mount Stuart, Alexandra Jackson discusses its place in Venetian art, and studies the limited evidence for its date, patronage and provenance

Apollo, August, 2004 by Alexandra Jackson

The 3rd Earl also acquired pictures through Richard Dalton, a painter who acted as agent to a number of British collectors. He was introduced to the Prince of Wales (later George III) by Bute, and became Librarian and subsequently Surveyor of the King's Pictures. He paid six extended visits to Italy, and bought art for the King and for Bute, later finalising the purchase of Consul Joseph Smith's collection in Venice for the King. (59)

Bute visited Italy twice. His first visit lasted from 1768 to 1769 and he was in Venice throughout November 1768. (60) The last cities he visited before returning to London on 21 July 1769 were Milan and Venice. He returned in late 1769 and stayed until 1771. It is significant that several family members visited Italy. His brother, the Hon. James Stuart Mackenzie, held the post of envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary in Turin, and his tour sons, John, James, Charles and William, all made one or more visits. His mother-in-law, Lady Wortley Montagu, lived in Venice for several years until her return to England in 1761. Bute made a number of noteworthy contacts in the city, including Pietro Edwards (61) and Sir James Wright, the British Resident in Venice between 1766 and 1774, who acquired a large collection of pictures, many of which were sold after his death in 1803. A sale of Wright's paintings, drawings, antique gems and musical instruments at Christie's on 9 June 1804 lists a Coronation of the Virgin by 'Paris Bordone'. (62) An earlier Christie's sale of works belonging to a collector named Benfield, from 22 to 24 June 1799, included pictures from Wright's collection in the sale on 24 June. Lot 19 was described as Palma Vecchio's Christ with St Peter and other Saints. Philip Rylands's study of Palma Vecchio contains no picture by the artist corresponding to this description. (63) Some of Bordon's earlier sacre conversazioni echo Palma Vecchio's, and so it is conceivable that a painting by him may have been taken for one by Palma Vecchio.

By far the most promising clue to the provenance of Christ and the Centurion of Capernaum may lie in two letters written by Sir James Wright to Lord Bute in July 1769. In the first, dated 6 July 1769 and written in Venice after Bute had left, he comments on Bute's pictures and states that he has packed up the whole collection to be shipped on the Mary, captained by Richard Hall, and has at the same time written to Richard Glover of Broad Street to insure Bute's effects for 2,000 [pounds sterling], conceding however that they are worth more. (64) In the second letter, dated 14 July 1769, from Vicenza, he informs Bute that all his cases of pictures have been sent under his (Wright's) name so as to be exempt from customs duty. (65)

Although the letters indicate that Wright purchased works of art for Bute, they also show that the latter had amassed a large collection in Italy, (66) which he left in Wright's custody for shipment to England. (67) Christ and the Centurion of Capernaum may thus have entered the Bute collection in 1769 having possibly been purchased by the 3rd Earl himself. He refrained it around 1772, and in 1799 it was included in the first Bute inventory.