The Judgment of Paris
c. 1475/1485
Artist, Sienese, 1439 - 1501

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G15
Artwork overview
-
Medium
bronze//Dark patina (black lacquer somewhat rubbed over rich reddish-brown bronze)
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 13.69 x 13.03 cm (5 3/8 x 5 1/8 in.)
gross weight: 617.4 gr (1.361 lb.) -
Accession
1957.14.140
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Vicomte Isidore-Hippolyte de Janzé [1790–1865], Paris; (his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 16 April 1866, no. 56); (Couvreur);[1] Louis-Charles Timbal [1812–1880], Florence and Paris; sold 29 November 1872 to Gustave Dreyfus [1837–1914], Paris; his heirs; purchased 1930 with the entire Dreyfus collection by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 1944 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York.
[1] This information was kindly supplied by Marie-Amélie Carlier (e-mail of 12 October 2007 to NGA curator Nicholas Penny, in NGA curatorial files).
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1880
Sixième Exposition, Union Centrale des Beaux-Arts Appliqué à l'Industrie, Paris, 1880.
1937
The Art of the Renaissance Craftsman, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1937, no. 54, repro., as by Leonardo da Vinci.
1938
Eighteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Italian Gothic and Early Renaissance Sculptures [cover title: Italian Sculpture 1250-1500], Detroit Institute of Arts, 1938, no. 76, repro.
1980
Beyond Nobility: Art for the Private Citizen in the Early Renaissance, Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, 1980-1981, no. 41, repro.
1993
Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena 1450-1500, Chiesa di Sant'Agostino, Siena, 1993, no. 85, repro.
Bibliography
1881
Giraud, Jean-Baptiste. Les Arts du Métal: recueil desciptif et raisonné des principaux objets ayant figuré à l'Exposition de 1880 de l'Union central des beaux-arts. Paris, 1881: no. 1, pl. 13, repro., as Esquisse de Botticelli.
1886
Molinier, Émile. Les Bronzes de la Renaissance. Les Plaquettes; Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols. Paris, 1886: 2:104, no. 538, as Florentine school, second half of the fifteenth century.
1890
Bode, Wilhelm von. "Una tavola in bronzo di Andrea del Verrocchio." Archivio storico dell'arte 6 (1893): 84, repro 83, as by Verrocchio.
1901
Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell'Arte Italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 6(1908):511, as by Bertoldo.
1904
Bode, Wilhelm von. "Leonardo als Bildhauer." _ Jahrbuch der Königlichen Preussischen Kunstsammlungen_ 25 (1904): 138, fig. 8, as by Leonardo da Vinci.
1908
Migeon, Gaston. “La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus, III: Petits bronzes—Bas-reliefs.” Les Arts 73 (Jan. 1908): 24, repro. 28, as Florentine school, end of the fifteenth century.
Bode, Wilhelm von. Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance. London, 1908: 215-216, pl. 90, as by Leonardo.
1919
Schubring, Paul. Die Italienische Plastik des Quattrocento. Berlin, c. 1919: 188-189, fig. 255, repro.
1923
Venturi, Adolfo. "Francesco di Giorgio Martini scultore." L'Arte 26 (1923): 212–213, fig. 12.
1925
Vaudoyer, Jean-Louis. “La collection Gustave Dreyfus.” L’Amour de l’Art 6, no. 7 (1925): 257, repro. 250, as by Verrocchio.
1929
Planiscig, Leo. "Toskanische Plastiken des Quattrocento." Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 3 (1929): 85-86, fig. 89.
1931
Ricci, Seymour de. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection. Reliefs and Plaquettes. Oxford, 1931: 22-23, no. 16, pl. 11, as by Leonardo da Vinci.
1943
Weller, Allen Stuart. Francesco di Giorgio 1439-1501. Chicago, 1943: 161-162, fig. 58.
1946
Papini, Roberto. Francesco di Giorgio, architetto. 2 vols. [Florence], 1946: 1:5.
1949
Brandi, Cesare. Quattrocentisti senesi. Milan, 1949: 154, 234, n. 122.
Maltese, Corrado. "Opere e soggiorni di Francesco di Giorgio." In Rotondi, Pasquale, ed. Studi artistici urbinati. 2 vols. [Urbino], 1949: 1: 72.
Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 178, note 31, repro. 107.
1951
Renaissance Bronzes: Statuettes, Reliefs and Plaquettes, Medals and Coins from the Kress Collection. Introduction by Perry B. Cott. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 14, 142, repro. 60.
Pope-Hennessy, John. 'Review: Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art by Charles Seymour." The Burlington Magazine 93, no. 576 (March 1951): 98.
1965
Pope-Hennessy, John W. Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars. London, 1965: 25, no. 71, fig. 18.
1966
Montagu, Jennifer. "Plaquettes Revealed." Apollo 83 (March 1966): 229.
1968
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:142.
1970
Del Bravo, Carlo. Scultura senese del Quattrocento. Florence, 1970: 100-101.
1983
Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 35 no. 1, 37.
1987
Toledano, Ralph. Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Pittore e scultore. Milan, 1987: 129, no. 49, repro.
1994
Penny, Nicholas. "Non-Finito in Italian Fifteenth-Century Bronze Sculpture." Antologia di belle arti new series, nos. 48-51 (1994): 13-14, fig. 3.
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: 1:360.
Markings
Reverse bears former inventory numbers (illegible) in white paint (presumably Timbal, c. 1860s: see Provenance), canceled with red paint (Dreyfus), and earlier-style NGA accession number in red paint.
Wikidata ID
Q63814977