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Giovanni Bastianini

Portrait of a Lady, "Giovanna Albizzi", c. 1860

Not on View

Medium

gesso and polychrome over wood and mixed media

Dimensions

overall: 53 x 54 x 30.8 cm (20 7/8 x 21 1/4 x 12 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.129

Artists / Makers

Giovanni Bastianini (sculptor) Florentine, 1830 - 1868

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

falsely dated, on base, across front: T[for I]OANNA ALBIZA MCCC C[L or I]X

Provenance

Acquired from the artist c. 1865 by (Francesco Simonelli, Florence);[1] purchased 1865 by Louis-Charles Timbal [1821-1880], Paris; sold 1872 with his collection to Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 21-22 February 1873, 1st day, no. 63, bought in);[2] his estate; purchased 1930 with the entire Dreyfus collection by (Duveen Brothers, Inc. London, New York, and Paris); purchased May 1933 by the Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, and subsequently returned to (Duveen Brothers, Inc.);[3] purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Foresi, Alexandre, La Tour de Babel, Paris, 1868: 40-42.

[2] The information that the bust was included in this sale was kindly provided by Marie-Amélie Carlier (e-mail of 12 October 2007 to Nicholas Penny, in NGA curatorial files).

[3] Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 199, box 344, folders 1 and 2; copies in NGA curatorial files. See also "Notable Acquisitions, Record Attendance, Mark Year in Toledo," The Art Digest (15 February 1934): 13, repro. on cover.

[4] The Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files; the sculpture is listed as by Desiderio da Settignano.

Associated Names

Dreyfus, Gustave
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Timbal, Louis-Charles

Exhibition History

1932: Sculpture and Medals of the Renaissance from the Dreyfus Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1932, as by Desiderio da Settignano.

Bibliography

1868: Foresi, Alexandre. Tour de Babel: ou objet d'Art faux pris pour vrais et vice versa. Paris, Florence, 1868: 40-42.

1873: Hôtel Drouot. Objets d'art et de curiosité de la Renaissance: Tableaux anciens des écoles italienne et holondaise. Paris, 1873: 14.

1884: Eudel, Paul. Le truquage. Le contrafaçons dévoillées. Paris, 1884: 388.

1907: Vitry, Paul. "La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus: I. - La Sculpture." Les Arts 72 (December 1907): repro. 21, 27.

1911: Foresi, Mario. "Di un valoroso scultore: E della vicende delle sue opere celebri." Rassegna Nazionale 180 (1 August 1911): 397-414.

1937: Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 25.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 223, no. A-18, as Bust of a Lady by Florentine School, XV Century.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 253, repro. 227, as Bust of a Lady by Florentine School, XV Century.

1943: Swarzenski, Georg. "Some Aspects of Italian Quattrocento Sculpture in the National Gallery." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 6th series, 24 (November 1943): 289, repro.

1944: Duveen Brothers, Inc. Duveen Sculpture in Public Collections of America: A Catalog Raisonné with illustrations of Italian Renaissance Sculptures by the Great Masters which have passed through the House of Duveen. New York, 1944: figs. 65-66, as A Florentine Lady, by Desiderio da Settignano.

1949: Galassi, Guiseppe. La scultura fiorentina del quattrocento. Milan, 1949: 171-172, 187.

1962: Cardellini, Ida. Desiderio da Settignano. Milan, 1962: 88.

1973: Sani, Bernardina. "Le vrai et le faux dans l'oeuvre de Bastianini." Revue de l'Art 21 (1973): 102-107.

1974: Pope-Hennessy, John. "The Forging of Italian Renaissance Sculpture." Apollo 99 (April 1974): 260, 267, repro. no. 60.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 27, repro.

2000: Damianaki, Chrysa. The female portrait busts of Francesco Laurana. Rome, 2000: 99-100, 105, 181 n. 101, pl. 159.

2004: Moskowitz, Anita F. "The Case of Giovanni Bastianini: A Fair and Balanced View." Artibus et Historiae 25, no. 50 (2004): 157-185, repro.

2005: Warren, Jeremy. "Forgery in Risorgimento Florence: Bastianini's 'Giovanni delle Bande Nere' in the Wallace Collection." The Burlington Magazine 147 (November 2005): 739.

2007: Desiderio da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence. Exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris; Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Milan, 2007: 154, fig. 98.

2011: Moskowitz, Anita F. "'Dell'Anima Trasmigrata': Giovanni Bastianini and Desiderio da Settignano." In Connors, Joseph, Alessandro Nova, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Gerhard Wolf, eds. Papers from a colloquium held at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, Max-Planck-Institut, and at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, May 9-12, 2007 on occasion of the exhibition in Florence dedicated to Desiderio da Settignano. Venice, 2011: 269-270, repro. 274.

2013: Moskowitz, Anita F. Forging Authenticity: Bastianini and the Neo-Renaissance in Nineteenth-Century Florence. Florence, 2013: 58-62, n. 112, 115, 127-29, n. 134, figs. 34-39, 41.

2021: Warren, Jeremy. "From Florence to Paris: new evidence for Giovanni Bastianini and his work." The Burlington Magazine 163 (March 2021): 223-235, esp. 234, fig. 12, n. 97.