Stefano Bardini

Italian, 1836 - 1922

Explore Selected Works

See all 34 works of art
Pisan 14th Century, Angel with Tambourine, c. 1360, marble, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1960.5.15

Angel with Tambourine

Pisan 14th Century · c. 1360 · marble ·  Accession ID  1960.5.15

Italian 16th Century, Leather-covered Walnut Armchair, 16th century, walnut, poplar, tooled and gilded leather, and gilded metal nails, Widener Collection, 1942.9.380

Leather-covered Walnut Armchair

Italian 16th Century · 16th century · walnut, poplar, tooled and gilded leather, and gilded metal nails ·  Accession ID  1942.9.380

Saracchi Workshop, Western European 19th Century, Altar Cross, c. 1590 (foot); mid to late 19th century (cross and its mounts), rock crystal, enameled gold, 3 beryls, 46 spinels, and 11 emeralds, Widener Collection, 1942.9.294

Altar Cross

Saracchi Workshop, Western European 19th Century · c. 1590 (foot); mid to late 19th century (cross and its mounts) · rock crystal, enameled gold, 3 beryls, 46 spinels, and 11 emeralds ·  Accession ID  1942.9.294

To our right, a man with a long, pointed beard, wearing a fawn-brown, hooded robe, walks toward a second bearded man, to our left, wearing a cobalt-blue robe and sitting on a stone slab in front of a deep landscape, in this vertical painting. Both men have pale skin and brown hair. The man to our right faces our left in profile, and has two sharp, bone-white horns curving back from the top of his head and a claw-like, webbed foot protruding from under the hem of his monk’s robe. He has a prominent, hooked nose, sunken eyes, and he seems to look ahead, into the distance. He clutches a strand of large beads hanging from his waist with his right hand, farther from us, and holds a round, loaf-sized stone in his other hand. The body of the seated man, to our left, faces us but he turns to look off to our right with dark eyes. His left hand, to our right, rests in his lap and his other hand is raised, palm facing the walking man. Rocks and boulders lie on the ground between and around the men. Behind them, a grassy meadow dotted with tiny white flowers slopes down to a line of trees with olive-green leaves, tucked beyond the hill. One tall, spindly tree grows behind the horned man and a bird perches, wings spread, on the top. A steep, rocky cliff rises behind the seated man, to our left. Two strokes of light blue and pale beige suggest two people standing atop the cliff. Beyond, a city with tan-colored stone buildings and blue mountains are hazy in the distance. Atop a tower in the city, the pair of men appear again, with the man in brown gesturing down and the man in blue looking on. Three more birds fly across the sky, which deepens from a misty white near the mountaintops in the background to azure blue along the top edge of the panel. The surface of the painting has visible long, mostly vertical cracks throughout.
Juan de Flandes, The Temptation of Christ, c. 1500/1504, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1967.7.1

The Temptation of Christ

Juan de Flandes · c. 1500/1504 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1967.7.1

North Italian 16th Century, Gian Paolo Pace, Alessandro Alberti with a Page, possibly 1544/1545, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.80

Alessandro Alberti with a Page

North Italian 16th Century, Gian Paolo Pace · possibly 1544/1545 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.80

Michele Giambono, Saint Peter, c. 1445/1450, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.80

Saint Peter

Michele Giambono · c. 1445/1450 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.80

Two women, a man, and a satyr, a man with goat’s legs, are in two pairs in a forested landscape in this horizontal painting. The pale-skinned women are nude, and their blond hair is tied up and back. One woman sits on a brown boulder to the left of center. One hand covers her groin, and the other hand rests on the satyr’s shoulder. The satyr has deeply tanned skin, short white hair, and a long white beard. A white cloth wraps over one shoulder and across his hips. He holds up an object, perhaps a shell, with one hand. That arm crosses over the woman’s breasts. His other hand is by his lower belly, and he looks at the shell. A bit farther back and to our right, a second nude woman also sits on a boulder. She faces away from us and holds up a long stick with her left arm, which arcs over her body. A clean-shaven, pale-skinned man sits with his back against the boulder. He has long brown hair and looks off to the distance to our right. He wears a carnation-pink robe over a sapphire-blue tunic. His legs splay in front of him, his feet bare, as he holds a bow to a violin-like instrument tucked under his chin. The two pairs sit in a grassy glade occupied also by five pheasant- or peacock-like birds. A thin river running behind the glade is lined with spindly trees that together make an impenetrable bronze-brown and laurel-green canopy. The second woman’s stick points or is directed to a gray, mountain lion-like cat on the far bank. Closer inspection reveals deer and another person, who points, tucked among the trunks. A glimpse of blue sky is visible through a break in the tree trunks.
Venetian 16th Century, Orpheus, c. 1515, oil on panel transferred to canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.2

Orpheus

Venetian 16th Century · c. 1515 · oil on panel transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.2

Giovanni di Balduccio, Charity, c. 1330, marble, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1960.5.4

Charity

Giovanni di Balduccio · c. 1330 · marble ·  Accession ID  1960.5.4

About fifty pale-skinned men, women, and children along with a giraffe, ox, and other animals gather in groups across a hilly landscape in this vertical painting. The people wear robes or dresses in shades of carnation pink, honey orange, sky blue, ruby red, leaf green, or golden brown. The people’s skin is painted pearl white or, in a few instances, tinged with gray. A crowd of eight men and women gather in the lower left quadrant behind a man who points to the right with a stick. Others sit on the ground or on rocks, stand at barrel-sized urns, or bend to the ground. A porcupine, white rabbit, black bear, cow, cheetah-like animals, and several others are spaced along the foreground, close to us. The gathering continues into the distance to the right, where a path leads to a cluster of buildings along a jagged coastline. Craggy mountains rising from water line are shaded aquamarine blue under a cloudy sky. A few tall, spindly trees grow up the center of the composition, and a tall, rocky outcropping takes up most of the upper left quadrant.
Bachiacca, The Gathering of Manna, 1540/1555, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.4

The Gathering of Manna

Bachiacca · 1540/1555 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.4

Shown from the chest up on the far side of a ledge, a pale-skinned, clean-shaven young man faces our right in profile in this vertical portrait painting. He looks steadily forward. The eye we can see is brown under a thin, curving brow. His nose is bumped near the bridge, and he has a slight underbite. His pale pink lips are closed, and he has a delicate jawline. Short brown hair brushes the side of his face under a coral-red turban, the ends of which fall down his back. A high-collared dark brown garment is edged with white around the neck, and a cranberry-red robe or jacket falls open over his chest. He is shown against a dark, teal-blue background. The ledge along the bottom of the painting is black with edged with gold. Gold lettering reads, “MATHEVS OLIVIERI D NI IOANNI FILI.”
Florentine 15th Century, Matteo Olivieri (?), 1430s, tempera (and oil?) on panel transferred to canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.15

Matteo Olivieri (?)

Florentine 15th Century · 1430s · tempera (and oil?) on panel transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.15

Bibliography

1923

  • Bode, Wilhelm von, "Stefano Bardini," L'Antiquario X (1923):1-2

1970

  • Towner, Wesley. The Elegant Auctioneers. New York, 1970: 320-321.

1996

  • Turner, Jane, ed. The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 3:228.

2000

  • Fahy, Everett. Dipinti, disegni, miniature, stampe: L'Archivio storico fotografico di Stefano Bardini. Florence, 2000.