A Little Boy

1455/1460

Desiderio da Settignano

Artist, Florentine, c. 1429 - 1464

This free-standing, white marble bust shows the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a young boy. In this photograph, the sculpture is angled to our right. The boy has full cheeks, a slightly upturned nose, and short, wavy hair. He stares straight ahead, his faint eyebrows slighty lifted. His loose garment drapes from his right shoulder, on our left, down and across his chest to just below his left shoulder.

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A favorite Florentine Renaissance sculptural type, this bust of a young boy reveals Desi-derio as one of the finest marble carvers of all time. Even Leonardo da Vinci learned from his subtle transitions and sensitive expressions. Through keen observation, consummate chisel work, and careful abrasion, Desiderio transformed stone into wispy hair, layered cloth, and soft flesh. Appearing still and composed at first glance, the child has subtle indentations around the mouth and a slightly turning face, suggesting a mood about to change. The original subject may have been the infant Christ, or a portrait later changed into a sacred image, suggested by a hole drilled to hold a halo stem.
On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G15

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    marble

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 26.3 x 24.7 x 15 cm (10 3/8 x 9 3/4 x 5 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.113

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased 1846 in Italy by Eugène Piot [1812-1890], Paris; sold 26 April 1864 to Paul van Cuyck, Paris.[1] Louis-Charles Timbal [1821-1880], Paris; sold 1872 with his collection to Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris;[2] his estate; purchased 1930 with the entire Dreyfus collection by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[3] purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] According to the Duveen Brothers invoice, see note 4.
[2] According to information kindly proved by Marie-Amélie Carlier, Timbal asked to retain possession of the bust until his death, even though it had technically been sold to Dreyfus with the rest of the collection in 1872. Dreyfus had a copy of the bust until Timbal died in 1880. See Ms. Carlier's e-mail of 12 October 2007 to Nicholas Penny in NGA curatorial files.
[3] Provenance prior to Mellon Trust is according to David Finley's notebook donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives.
[4] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1932

  • Italian Sculptures from the Dreyfus Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932.

1935

  • Exposition de L'Art Italien de Cimabue a Tiepolo, Musèe du Petit Palais, Paris, 1935, no. 1038.

2006

  • Desiderio da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence, Musée du Louvre, Paris; Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006-2007, no. 11, repro.

Bibliography

1907

  • Vitry, Paul. "La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus: I. - La Sculpture." Les Arts 72 (December 1907): repro. 3, 4, 6, 8, 10.

1937

  • Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: repro. opposite page 25.

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 79, 83, repro.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 221, no. A-2, pl. XV.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 253, repro. 227, as Bust of a Little Boy.

1943

  • Swarzenski, Georg. "Some Aspects of Italian Quattrocento Sculpture in the National Gallery." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th series, 24 (November 1943): 289 fig. 5, 290-291.

1944

  • Duveen Brothers, Inc. Duveen Sculpture in Public Collections of America: A Catalog Raisonné with illustrations of Italian Renaissance Sculptures by the Great Masters which have passed through the House of Duveen. New York, 1944: figs. 60-62, as Bust of a Boy.

1948

  • Louchheim, Aline B. "Children Should Be Seen." Art News Annual 46 (1948): 52, repro.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 152, repro., as Bust of a Little Boy.

  • Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 175-176, note 20, repro. 77-79, as Bust of a Little Boy.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 152, as Bust of a Little Boy.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 135, repro., as Bust of a Little Boy.

1973

  • Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 42, 43 repro.

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 35-36, pl. 14, as Bust of a Little Boy [incorrectly identified as Samuel H. Kress Collection].

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 626, no. 971, repro., as Bust of a Little Boy.

1990

  • Luchs, Alison. "Duveen, the Dreyfus Collection, and the Treatment of Italian Renaissance Sculpture: Examples from the National Gallery of Art." Studies in the History of Art 24 (1990):34-35, repro.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 73, repro.

1996

  • Tansey, Richard G. and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. 10th ed. Fort Worth, 1996: 713, color fig. 21.48.

2003

  • Gregori, Mina, ed. In the Light of Apollo: Italian Renaissance and Greece. 2 vols. Exh. cat. National Gallery and Alexandros Souzos Museum, Athens, 2003-2004: 1:207.

2011

  • Bormand, Marc. "De la naissance à la mort. Diversité d'espression dans l'oeuvre de Desiderio da Settignano." In Connors, Joseph, Alessandro Nova, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Gerhard Wolf, eds. Papers from a colloquium held at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, Max-Planck-Institut, and at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, May 9-12, 2007 on occasion of the exhibition in Florence dedicated to Desiderio da Settignano. Venice, 2011: 31, repro. p. 32.

2019

  • Butterfield, Andrew et al. Verrocchio, Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence. Washington, 2019: 124, fig. 1, 126, 143.

Wikidata ID

Q63809339

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