A Satyr and a Bacchante (Allegory of Reproduction), fourth quarter 19th century

Not on View

Medium

bronze

Dimensions

height (with suspension loop): 17.15 cm (6 3/4 in.)
overall (diameter without suspension loop): 17 cm (6 11/16 in.)
gross weight: 341.63 gr (0.753 lb.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1957.14.127

Artists / Makers

European 19th Century (sculptor)

Master of the Martelli Mirror (artist after) North Italian, possibly Mantuan, late 15th or early 16th century

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

in exergue tablet: NATVRA FOVET / QVAE / NECESSITAS VRGET (Nature encourages what necessity demands)

Marks and Labels

Reverse bears former inventory number 18 in red paint (Dreyfus), as well as earlier-style NGA accession number in red paint.

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.

Exhibition History

1937: The Art of the Renaissance Craftsman, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1937, no. 52.

1983: Raphael and the Ruins of Rome: The Poetic Dimension, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1983-1984, unnumbered catalogue.

Bibliography

1886: Molinier, Émile. Les Bronzes de la Renaissance. Les Plaquettes; Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols. Paris, 1886: 1:15–16, no. 29, as After the Antique, end of fifteenth century or beginning of the sixteenth century.

1931: Ricci, Seymour de. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection. Reliefs and Plaquettes. Oxford, 1931: 6, no. 3, pl. 3, as by Donatello (this example as a later cast).

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: 141, repro. 52, as Attributed to Donatello.

1964: Pope-Hennessy, John, assisted by Ronald Lightbown. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. 3 vols. London, 1964: 1:328, as Mantuan, last quarter of the fifteenth century (this example made at a late date).

1975: Varese, Ranieri, ed. Placchette e bronzi nelle civiche collezioni. Exh. cat. Palazzina di Marfisa d'Este, Ferrara. Florence, 1975: 24, no. 1 note, as by a Mantuan master, fifteenth century (replica).

1998: Avery, Charles, Marzia Ratti, and Angela Acordon, eds. Sculture: bronzetti, placchette, medaglie. Museo Civico Amedeo Lia, La Spezia. [Cinisello Balsamo], 1998: 286, no. 207.