Portrait of a Lady, "Giovanna Albizzi"
c. 1860
Sculptor, Florentine, 1830 - 1868
Giovanni Bastianini
Attributed to
Artwork overview
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Medium
gesso and polychrome over wood and mixed media
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 53 x 54 x 30.8 cm (20 7/8 x 21 1/4 x 12 1/8 in.)
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Accession Number
1937.1.129
Artwork history & notes
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
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.
Inscriptions
falsely dated, on base, across front: T[for I]OANNA ALBIZA MCCC C[L or I]X
Wikidata ID
Q63809482