The Continence of Scipio [reversed sense]

Giovanni Bernardi

Associated Names
Giovanni Bernardi

Sculptor, Bolognese, 1494 - 1553

This oval relief sculpture depicts multiple people wearing helmets and armor. A large group of people in the center walk towards the left, where a single person with a bare chest stands or sits with their face turned away from the armored group. This person holds a long object in one hand and raises it up above the group. In the background, on the left and right sides, are two decorated arches. The sculpture has a light bronze or gold color, with a darker patina in some areas. Some of the details are hard to make out. There is a small hole near the top of the sculpture.

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On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G16

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (oval): 3.2 x 4.5 cm (1 1/4 x 1 3/4 in.) gross weight: 17 gr

  • Accession Number

    1942.9.181

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Oscar Hainauer [d. 1894], Berlin; his wife, Julie Hainauer, Berlin; acquired 1906 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); by exchange 21 October 1920 to Joseph E. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1897

  • Bode, Wilhelm von, ed. Die Sammlung Oscar Hainauer / The Collection of Oscar Hainauer. [bound as one volume, English and German pages interleaved in one page sequence] Berlin, 1897 and London, 1906: no. 219.

1908

  • A Cabinet of One Hundred & Thirty-Three Bronze Plaques and Medals of the Renaissance Period from the Collection of the Late Herr Oscar Hainauer of Berlin. Ed. Duveen Brothers. London, n.d. (but 1908): no. 114, repro.

1942

  • Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 15.

1983

  • Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 112, no. 11.

1989

  • Donati 1989, 194, note.

Inscriptions

[all in retrograde sense] on frieze band above arch, right: .CASTI[TAS] [CHASTITY]; on frieze band above arch, left: CONT[INENTIA]; on dais at lower left: .SCIPI[ONIS]. [The continence of Scipio]

Markings

"P.79" in black paint; "114." in white paint

Wikidata ID

Q63809494

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