Winged Human Eye [reverse], 1446/1450

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G16

Medium

bronze

Dimensions

overall (diameter): 9.34 cm (3 11/16 in.)
gross weight: 205.24 gr (0.452 lb.)
axis: 12:00

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1957.14.648.b

Artists / Makers

Matteo de' Pasti (artist) Italian, c. 1420 - 1467/1468

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

around circumference: MATTHAEI PASTII VERONENSIS OPVS; lower center: QVID TVM

Provenance

Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris; his heirs; purchased with the entire Dreyfus collection 9 July 1930 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 31 January 1944 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1957 to NGA.

[1] The Duveen Brothers Records document the firm’s sixteen year pursuit and eventual acquisition of the Dreyfus collection, which included paintings, sculptures, small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes. Bequeathed as part of his estate to Dreyfus’ widow and five children (a son and four daughters), who had differing opinions about its disposition, the collection was not sold until after his widow’s death in April 1929. Duveen did not wish to separate Dreyfus’ collection of small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes, and it was sold intact to the Kress Foundation for a price that was met by installment payments every three months. (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 301, box 446, folders 3 and 4; reel 302, box 447, folders 1-6; reel 303, box 448, folders 1 and 2; reel 330, box 475, folder 4.) See also George Francis Hill’s discussion "A Note on Pedigrees" in his catalogue, The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Renaissance Medals, Oxford, 1931: xii, which was commissioned by Duveen Brothers.

Associated Names

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

Exhibition History

1953: Renaissance Portraits, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1953, no cat.

1994: The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo: The Representation of Architecture. Palazzo Grassi, Venice; NGA, Wash.; Musée des Monuments Français, Paris; Altes Museum, Berlin, 1994-1996, no. 42 (Venice, DC), no. 23 (Berlin); (not shown in Paris).

2000: The Power of Appearances: Renaissance and Reformation Portrait Prints, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, 2000, no cat.

Bibliography

1997: Glinsman, Lisha Deming. "Renaissance Portrait Medals by Matteo de'Pasti." Studies in the History of Art 57 (1997): 100, fig. 6, 101

1999: Di Stefano, Elisabetta. L’altro sapere: Bello, Arte, Immagine in Leon Battista Alberti. Palermo, 1999: 155, n.5.

2001: Schneider Adams, Laurie. Italian Renaissance Art. Boulder, 2001: 144-46, fig. 7.3.

2007: Pollard, John Graham. Renaissance Medals. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. 2 vols. Washington, 2007: 1:no. 40, repro.

2009: Pasini, Pier Giorgio. Il tesoro di Sigismondo e le medaglie di Matteo de' Pasti. Bologna, 2009: repro. 97.

2020: Tsitrin, Lev. "The Perfect Pose." The MCA Advisory 23, no. 3 (Fall 2020): 19, repro.