Pietà, late 15th century

Not on View

Medium

bronze//Medium brown patina

Dimensions

overall (silhouetted on three sides): 6.55 x 4.8 cm (2 9/16 x 1 7/8 in.)
gross weight: 55.48 gr (0.122 lb.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1957.14.394

Artists / Makers

Venetian 15th Century (artist)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

on scroll on top of cross: I[ESUS] N[AZARENUS] R[EX] I[UDEORUM] (Jesus of Nazareth, "King of the Jews")[1]

Inscription Notes

[1] This is the mocking Superscription applied to the Cross, as recounted in Matthew 27:37, Mark 15:26, and Luke 23:38 (all restricted to the “title” only); the full form, with both name and title, and note of trilingual Hebrew/Greek/Latin text, is in John 19:19–22.

Marks and Labels

Reverse bears former inventory numbers 105 (the “5” is uncertain) in white paint (presumably Mylius collection), 295 in red paint (Dreyfus), and 270 in yellow 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: 2:59, no. 435, as Venetian, end of the fifteenth century.

1931: Ricci, Seymour de. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection. Reliefs and Plaquettes. Oxford, 1931: 196, no. 270, pl. 82, as Venetian, end of the fifteenth century.

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: 145, as Venetian, end of the fifteenth century.

1965: Pope-Hennessy, John W. Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars. London, 1965: 84, no. 294, fig. 283.

1998: Avery, Charles, Marzia Ratti, and Angela Acordon, eds. Sculture: bronzetti, placchette, medaglie. Museo Civico Amedeo Lia, La Spezia. [Cinisello Balsamo], 1998: 268, no. 188.