Winged Human Eye [reverse]
1446/1450
Artist, Italian, c. 1420 - 1467/1468
West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G16
Artwork overview
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Medium
bronze
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall (diameter): 9.34 cm (3 11/16 in.)
gross weight: 205.24 gr (0.452 lb.)
axis: 12:00 -
Accession
1957.14.648.b
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris; his heirs; purchased with the entire Dreyfus collection 9 July 1930 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 31 January 1944 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1957 to NGA.
[1] The Duveen Brothers Records document the firm’s sixteen year pursuit and eventual acquisition of the Dreyfus collection, which included paintings, sculptures, small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes. Bequeathed as part of his estate to Dreyfus’ widow and five children (a son and four daughters), who had differing opinions about its disposition, the collection was not sold until after his widow’s death in April 1929. Duveen did not wish to separate Dreyfus’ collection of small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes, and it was sold intact to the Kress Foundation for a price that was met by installment payments every three months. (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 301, box 446, folders 3 and 4; reel 302, box 447, folders 1-6; reel 303, box 448, folders 1 and 2; reel 330, box 475, folder 4.) See also George Francis Hill’s discussion "A Note on Pedigrees" in his catalogue, The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Renaissance Medals, Oxford, 1931: xii, which was commissioned by Duveen Brothers.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1953
Renaissance Portraits, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1953, no cat.
1994
The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo: The Representation of Architecture. Palazzo Grassi, Venice; NGA, Wash.; Musée des Monuments Français, Paris; Altes Museum, Berlin, 1994-1996, no. 42 (Venice, DC), no. 23 (Berlin); (not shown in Paris).
2000
The Power of Appearances: Renaissance and Reformation Portrait Prints, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, 2000, no cat.
Bibliography
1997
Glinsman, Lisha Deming. "Renaissance Portrait Medals by Matteo de'Pasti." Studies in the History of Art 57 (1997): 100, fig. 6, 101
1999
Di Stefano, Elisabetta. L’altro sapere: Bello, Arte, Immagine in Leon Battista Alberti. Palermo, 1999: 155, n.5.
2001
Schneider Adams, Laurie. Italian Renaissance Art. Boulder, 2001: 144-46, fig. 7.3.
2007
Pollard, John Graham. Renaissance Medals. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. 2 vols. Washington, 2007: 1:no. 40, repro.
2009
Pasini, Pier Giorgio. Il tesoro di Sigismondo e le medaglie di Matteo de' Pasti. Bologna, 2009: repro. 97.
2020
Tsitrin, Lev. "The Perfect Pose." The MCA Advisory 23, no. 3 (Fall 2020): 19, repro.
Inscriptions
around circumference: MATTHAEI PASTII VERONENSIS OPVS; lower center: QVID TVM
Wikidata ID
Q63847698