Diomedes, Ulysses and the Palladium, mid 15th century

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 15

Medium

bronze//Dark brown patina

Dimensions

overall (oval, without remains of suspension loop): 2.55 × 3.38 cm (1 × 1 5/16 in.)
overall (height with remains of suspension loop): 2.62 cm (1 1/16 in.)
gross weight: 11.48 gr (0.025 lb.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1957.14.162

Artists / Makers

Roman 15th Century (sculptor)

the Antique (artist after)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower left on alter, indistinct cast of signature on original gem, two lines in Greek letters: (Felix made this)

Marks and Labels

Reverse bears former inventory numbers 23 in red paint (Dreyfus) and 38 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: 1:18-19, no. 32, as Italian fifteenth century, after the antique.

1931: Ricci, Seymour de. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection. Reliefs and Plaquettes. Oxford, 1931: 37, no. 38, pl. 16, as Florentine 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: 143, as Florentine 15th Century.

1965: Pope-Hennessy, John W. Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars. London, 1965: 76, no. 258, fig. 43.

1977: Pollard, Graham. "The Felix Gem at Oxford and its provenance." The Burlington Magazine 119 (1977): 574 n. 5.

1978: Sheard, Wendy Stedman. Antiquity in the Renaissance. Exh. cat. Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1978: unpaginated, under no. 8.

1989: Rossi, Francesco. "Le Gemme Antiche e le Origini della Placchetta." In Italian Plaquettes. Douglas Lewis, ed. Studies in the History of Art 22, Symposium Papers 9 (1989): 56, fig. 2.

2006: Lewis, Douglas. "Mantova e la produzione di placchette nel XV secolo." In Rossi, Francesco, ed. Placchette e rilievi di bronzo nell'età del Mantegna. Exh. cat. Museo della Città di Palazzo San Sebastiano, Mantua, 2006: 10.

2011: Rossi, Francesco. La collezione Mario Scaglia: placchette. 3 vols. Bergamo, 2011: 1:51, under Prototipo, M.2, as Mantuan, c. 1470.