Costume Ornament with Profile Portrait, c. 1380/1400

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G18

Medium

repoussé silver, gilded, and translucent enamel, attached to a strip of velvet

Dimensions

overall (disk diameter): 4 cm (1 9/16 in.)
overall (velvet strip): 5.1 x 41.6 cm (2 x 16 3/8 in.)
overall (enamel): 1.3 x 1.3 cm (1/2 x 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1961.9.194

Artists / Makers

North Italian 14th Century (artist)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Reportedly Trivulzio collection, Milan; (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); purchased by 1937 or 1939 by Samuel H. Kress, New York,[1] as Sienese, c. 1500; gift 27 February 1950 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] A letter from A.M. Hind to John Walker, NGA director, 12 June 1951, states that Hind first heard (from Alfred Frankfurter, editor of The Art News) of the Trivulzio nielli, with which this enamel was acquired, in Kress's hands in 1937. Marie-Madeleine Gauthier, in a letter to NGA curator Alison Luchs of 25 June 1984, mentions a sale of the Trivulzio collection in London, 6 June 1939; no catalogue has been located. Both letters are in NGA curatorial files.

[2] Deposition by Herbert L. Spencer, executive director, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 21 August 1956, in the secretary-general counsel's office files, National Gallery of Art, Kress no. 0-150/1-9.

Associated Names

Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Kress, Samuel H.
Trivulzio collection

Technical Summary

The ornaments are attached to a pieced strip of worn, dark red velvet with a satin backing, of uncertain date. Eight are enameled in blue. The bottom lobe of 1961.9.194 is damaged, the enamel of the figure's chest lost.

X-ray fluorescence analysis of the metal disks indicated they are made of mercury-gilded (fire-gilded) silver.[1] An area where enamel is lost, the central portion of disk 1969.1.194, shows only silver. The light and dark blue enameled areas contain silver (perhaps from the base) and small amounts of copper, zinc, and lead. The green areas contain the same elements, with a greater concentration of copper, which is probably responsible for the coloration in both the blue and green areas.

[1] Report, 19 March 1987, in NGA conservation laboratory files.

Bibliography

1993: Distelberger, Rudolf, Alison Luchs, Philippe Verdier, and Timonthy H. Wilson. Western Decorative Arts, Part I: Medieval, Renaissance, and Historicizing Styles including Metalwork, Enamels, and Ceramics. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1993: 45-48, repro. 46.