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Matteo de' Pasti

The Malatesta Elephant in a Meadow [reverse], c. 1450

Not on View

Medium

bronze

Dimensions

overall (diameter): 8.41 cm (3 5/16 in.)
gross weight: 258.3 gr (0.569 lb.)
axis: 12:00

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.165.b

Artists / Makers

Matteo de' Pasti (artist) Italian, c. 1420 - 1467/1468

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

around top circumference: OPVS MATHE DE PASTIS; around bottom circumference: MCCCXLVII

Provenance

Oscar Hainauer [d. 1894], Berlin; by inheritance to his widow, Mrs. Julie Hainauer, Berlin; purchased 1906 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); by exchange 21 October 1920 to Joseph E. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Philadelphia;[1] gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] A typed manuscript, “List of medals from the Hainauer Collection sold to Joseph Widener, Esq.” dated “October Twenty-First 1920,” is kept inside the front cover of the NGA Library’s copy of 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), which came to the Gallery from the Widener library. Elsewhere in the Widener records, the circumstances of the acquisition are recorded by Edith Standen, the Widener’s curator: “Plaques and medals. These, formerly in the Hainauer Collection, were presented to Mr. [Joseph] Widener by Lord Duveen (then Sir Joseph) as a peace-offering. Mr. Widener had broken off relations with the firm two years before over a disputed enamel he had purchased from them and the medals, though originally offered at a much higher price, were given in lieu of the purchase money of the enamel.” (Gallery Archives, Record Group 3, Records of the Office of the Deputy or Assistant Director, Donor Files Relating to Major Collections, Box 21.)

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Hainauer, Julie
Hainauer, Oskar
Widener, Joseph E.

Exhibition History

2001: Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration - Reinstallation of Kress Collection, Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, 2001-2002, no cat.

Bibliography

1883: Armand, Alfred. Les médailleurs italiens des quinzième et seizième siècles. 2nd ed. 3 vols. Paris, 1883-1887: I: 21, no. 20.

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. 256.

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. 25, repro.

1908: Migeon, Gaston. "La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus, V: Les plaquettes." Les Arts 80 (August 1908): 10, no. viii.

1930: Hill, George Francis. A Corpus of Italian Medals of the Renaissance before Cellini. 2 vols. London, 1930: 167.

1931: Hill, George Francis. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Renaissance Medals. Oxford, 1931: no. 59.

1944: Middeldorf, Ulrich and Oswald Goetz. Medals and Plaquettes from the Sigmund Morgenroth Collection. Chicago, 1944: no. 21.

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: 164.

1967: Hill, George Francis, and Graham Pollard. Renaissance Medals from the Samuel H. Kress Collection at the National Gallery of Art. London, 1967: no. 59.

1983: De Lorenzi, Giovanna. Medaglie di Pisanello e della sua cerchia. Museo del Bargello, Florence, 1983: no. 28.

1983: Middeldorf, Ulrich and D. Stiebral. Renaissance Medals and Plaquettes. Firenze, 1983: no. 26.

1983: Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 23, no. 4.

1984: Pollard, John Graham. Italian Renaissance Medals in the Museo Nazionale of Bargello. 3 vols. Florence, 1984: no. 40.

1987: Pasini, Pier Giorgio. "Matteo de'Pasti: Problems of Style and Chronology." Studies in the History of Art 21 (1987): 146-147.

1994: Luchs, Alison. In The Currency of Fame. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington,The Frick Collection, New York, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1994-1995: no. 12.

1994: Rykwert, Joseph and Anne Engel, eds. Leon Battista Alberti. Exh. cat. Palazzo del Tè, Mantua, 1994: 485-486, no. 89 (entry by Luke Syson).

1996: Luciano, Eleonora. "Diva Isotta and the Medals of Matteo de'Pasti." The Medal 29 (1996):6-10.

1997: Glinsman, Lisha Deming. "Renaissance Portrait Medals by Matteo de'Pasti." Studies in the History of Art 57 (1997): 102, fig. 17.

2007: Pollard, John Graham. Renaissance Medals. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. 2 vols. Washington, 2007: 1:no. 32, repro.