Saint Simeon of Polirone and the Miracle of the Stag, probably c. 1516

Not on View

Medium

bronze//Medium brown patina

Dimensions

overall: 6.16 × 18.9 cm (2 7/16 × 7 7/16 in.)
gross weight (approximate): 285 gr (0.628 lb.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1957.14.60.1

Artists / Makers

Bartolomeo Spani (sculptor) Italian, 1468 - 1539

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Marks and Labels

This plaquette has been combined with four other plaquettes (1957.14.60.2-.5) and a plain panel to make a partially lidded box, of which this plaquette is the front long side. The plain panel serves as the bottom of the box, and on its underside are markings for each of the plaquettes. Relevant to 1957.14.60.1 are: D477 in red paint (unidentified collection), 394 in white paint (Molinier 1886) canceled by a red bar, 269 in red paint (Dreyfus), and C54 B in red paint (Ricci 1931).

Provenance

Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris; his estate; purchased 1930 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 1945 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1957 to NGA.

Associated Names

Dreyfus, Gustave
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.

Bibliography

1886: Molinier, Émile. Les Bronzes de la Renaissance. Les Plaquettes; Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols. Paris, 1886: 2:41, no. 394, as Paduan school, Scene from the Life of a Saint.

1908: Migeon, Gaston. "La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus, V: Les plaquettes." Les Arts 80 (August 1908): 29, fig. 7, as Paduan school, Scene from the Life of a Saint.

1931: Ricci, Seymour de. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Renaissance Bronzes. Oxford, 1931: 62, no. 54-B, pl. 31, fig. 54-B, as Paduan school, Scene from the Life of a Saint, c. 1500.

1944: Middeldorf, Ulrich and Oswald Goetz. Medals and Plaquettes from the Sigmund Morgenroth Collection. Chicago, 1944: 36–37, no. 261, note, as Mantuan, c. 1500, [Scene from] the Life of Saint Simeon.

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: 137, repro. 39, as Paduan sixteenth century, Casket with Scenes from the Life of a Saint.

1965: Pope-Hennessy, John W. Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars. London, 1965: 143–144, no. 525 (i), fig. 527, as North Italian late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, Scene from the Life of Saint Simeon of Podirolo.

1983: Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 50, no. 8, as North Italian, possibly Mantuan, c. 1500, Scene from the Life of Saint Simeon of Podirolo.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 161, repro.

2001: Van Waveren-Hooft, Eliane. "Le Placchette con le 'Storie di San Simeone': Contesto e stile di un manufatto rinascimentale emigrato." In Piva, Paolo and Maria-Rosa Simonelli, eds. Storia di San Benedetto Polirone. L'età della soppressione. Bologna, 2001: 170–171, fig. 3, as possibly related to Bartolomeo Spani (c. 1500?).

2023: Calogero, Marcello. "Rediscovered drawings by Bartolomeo Spani for sculpture and goldsmithery." Burlington Magazine 165 (October 2023): 1085-1086.