Download - Renaissance bronzes, statuettes, reliefs and plaquettes, medals and coins from the Kress Collection / [with an introd. by Perry B. Cott]

8/11/2019 Renaissance bronzes, statuettes, reliefs and plaquettes, medals and coins from the Kress Collection / [with an introd. by Perry B. Cott]

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Renaissance BronzesStatuettes, Reliefs and Plaquettes,Medals and Coinsfrom theKress Collection

National Gallery of ArtSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, D. C.1951


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CONTENTSForeword 7Introduction 9IllustrationsSmall Bronzes 21Reliefs and Plaquettes 49Medals 99Check ListSmall BronzesItalian 137Flemish, French, German . . .141Reliefs and PlaquettesItalian 141Flemish, French, German . 159Russian 160MedalsItalian 160French 195German 199Flemish 203English 204CoinsItalian, French, Spanish 205

Index of Artists 207Index of Persons Represented on Medals 211


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FOREWORDThe Kress Collection, which came to the National Gallery of Art at thetime it was founded, contained outstanding works by many of the world'sgreatest sculptors. As a result of this gift and the gifts of sculpture includedin the Mellon and Widener Collections, the National Gallery, although it hasbeen open to the public only ten years, is now in the front rank of museumsshowing sculpture, especially of the Renaissance period. The Gallery's collec-

tion of sculpture thus parallels its collection of paintings, which covers theperiod from the thirteenth to the twentieth century.The collection of small bronzes and medals in the National Gallery, whiledistinguished in quality, has been limited both in the number of artists repre-sented and in the variety of examples of their work. This situation has nowbeen remedied by the addition to the Kress Collection of the bronze statuettes,plaquettes and medals described in this volume. This famous group, formerlyknown as the Dreyfus Collection, has long been the admiration of connois-seurs by reason of the number and quality of the works of art which it

contains.The addition of these objects to the collection assembled by Mr. Samuel H.Kress and his brother, Mr. Rush H. Kress, as trustees of the Samuel H. KressFoundation, adds greatly to the prestige of the National Gallery of Art in thefield of sculpture.David E. FinleyDirector


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INTRODUCTIONThe Renaissance bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection form one of themost distinguished groups of their kind in existence. Now exhibited to thepublic for the first time, the collection has long been familiar to amateurs of Italian art by the name of its former owner, the French collector Gustave Drey-fus (1837-1914), who brought together this imposing array of statuettes, pla-quettes and medals in a lifetime devoted to the collecting of Renaissance art.Gustave Dreyfus began to collect in the early 1870's, his first major purchasebeing a magnificent group of some ninety Italian paintings, sculptures and bronzesbelonging to the French painter Charles Timbal, who had brought many of themfrom Italy in the years between 1851 and 1870. Timbal, fearing for the safetyof his treasures in the troubled days of the war of 1870 and the Commune,reluctantly decided to part with most of them. Acquired by Gustave Dreyfus in1872, they became the nucleus of his collection. Thus, at the age of thirty-five,he became the owner of what was virtually a small museum of Renaissance paint-ing and sculpture, a "Parisian Bargello," as it was sometimes called. Onlymedals and plaquettes, of which Timbal had acquired none, were lacking.For the next forty years Dreyfus seldom purchased a painting or sculpture, pre-ferring to assemble the series of plaquettes and medals which was to become the

choicest of any collection, public or private, anywhere. He was a buyer at allthe important European sales and every art dealer in Europe gave him firstrefusal in his chosen field. G. F. Hill, in his catalogue of the Dreyfus medals,wrote of him as "of the select company [of collectors] who are not content withacquiring this or that on the advice of experts, but rely chiefly on their owntaste and judgment, which long experience and handling of the objects, not merebook-knowledge, combined with a natural flare for what was fine, makes steadyand assured." His taste for quality made him always ready to replace a goodexample with a better one and he is said, in some instances, to have exchanged amedal or plaquette five or six times before he was finally satisfied.Following his death, in 1914, the Dreyfus Collection, modestly housed in themedium-sized salon of his flat near the Pare Monceau, remained in the possessionof his family until the summer of 1930, when it was purchased en bloc by Sir Joseph Duveen. Although most of the paintings and sculptures have since beendispersedseven of the paintings and eighteen of the sculptures are now in theNational Gallery of Artthe group of bronzes was still intact when acquired bythe Samuel H. Kress Foundation.Not only in numbersit comprises 1306 objectsbut also in the exceptionalquality of individual specimens, many of which are unique, the present collectionranks with the well-known holdings of the Bargello at Florence, and the museumsof Vienna and Berlin. In respect to the 460 reliefs and plaquettes1 and the 708

medals,- the Kress Collection is without riva1.'Eric Maclagan, Catalogue of Italian Plaquettes, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1924, p.8: "The largest collection of plaquettes is that at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, [containing]just over a thousand different varieties. This collection is rivalled by that formed by thelate Monsieur Gustave Dreyfus . . . which certainly excels all others for the quality of theplaquettes it contains." Kj. F. Hill, The Gustave Dreyfus Collection, Renaissance Medals, 1931, v: "I like tothink that, keenly as Gustave Dreyfus appreciated all his beautiful things, he had a par-ticularly soft place in his heart for the Italian medals. . . . His was perhaps the finestcollection that has ever been in the hands of a private collectorthe 'perhaps' might beomitted, but that it is difficult to range the great collections in a true perspective."


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Gustave Dreyfus never catalogued his treasures, but he was mainly responsiblefor the information and attributions which appeared in several articles on theDreyfus Collection in Les Arts, 1907-08, by three of the curators of the Louvre,Jean Guiffrey, Paul Vitry and Gaston Migeon. The definitive catalogue3 of thecollection of bronzes was not to be published until many years after the owner'sdeath, and after its purchase by Duveen. The check list included in the presentpublication is based upon this catalogue and the attributions made therein have,with but few exceptions, been kept here.Bronze has been used by artists since earliest civilized times. An alloy of ap-proximately nine parts tin to one of copper, bronze in its fluid, molten state iseasily cast in elaborate shapes if required, which it would be impossible to dupli-cate in such a material, for example, as stone. When solid, bronze is hard anddurable, and exceedingly resistant to time and wear.During the Renaissance bronze statuettes as well as plaquettes were usually castby the "lost wax" method, a process that consists of making a model with a waxsurface of suitable thickness, forming the outside mold about this, heating themold so that the wax melts and runs out, the vacant space then being filled withmeta1. Besides bronze, silver and lead were also occasionally employed by Ren-aissance artists. Bronze was rarely left in the raw state, with its unpleasant color,

in which it left the mold. The surface was modified in various ways. Often itwas so rough that extensive chasing was required to make it presentable. Thebronze was almost always gilded or colored, the patina or color, usually a dark brown or black, being produced by chemical treatment or by lacquers and var-nishes (usually of pitch in linseed oil).During the Middle Ages bronze was used chiefly for utensils and ornaments,either ecclesiastical or domestic. With the Italian Renaissance bronze sculpturecame into its own, rapidly becoming a specialized art in which famous as well asmany less celebrated artists achieved popularity.The small bronzes in the Kress Collection comprise 111 specimens, nearly allof which are Italian, dating from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. Theyhave considerable range of interest and variety, as may be seen in the followingillustrations, including several statuettes of the greatest beauty, a number of small animal sculptures, a small group of bronze boxes and desk furnishings or-namented with plaquettes, and an unusually fine selection of table bells andmortars. Aside from their intrinsic beauty, these small objects, more intimate,less formal than monumental sculptures, are revealing documents of Renaissancelife and society. Many are inspired by, if not more or less freely copied from,the remains of Hellenistic and Roman art which were so highly prized by thehumanists and princely collectors of that age of classical reviva1. To cite only oneexample, the Spinario (p. 25), which exists in at least a dozen other versions by

different hands, was freely copied from the famous antique bronze statue of ayouth drawing a thorn from his foot which, as early as 1480, was already on viewin the Capitol, at Rome, where it is still exhibited. But the men of the Renais-sance also found pleasure in small bronzes that were, on the whole, lacking inantique elements, creations that were entirely in the style of the Renaissance.Besides the purely secular objects, there are numerous religious pieces, especiallystatuettes of popular saintsGeorge and the Dragon (p. 24), Sebastian (p. 26),or John the Baptist (p. 29). Who created these delightful objects is in manycases impossible to determine with absolute certainty, for rarely are they signed."Seymour de Ricci, The Gustave Dreyfus Collection, Renaissance Bronzes and Reliefs andPlaquettes. George Francis Hill, The Gustave Dreyfus Collection, Renaissance Medals.Oxford University Press, 1931.10


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It is to Florence, the early center of the Renaissance in Italy, that we must look for the new taste for small bronzes. Foremost among Florentine sculptors of thefifteenth century was Donatello (c. 1386-1466), whose innovations opened theway for the development of the art. Though Donatello probably made few, if any, of the statuettes and plaquettes sometimes attributed to him, he revivedbronze as a popular medium for sculpture in the round. The large bronzes whichhe executed in Florence and Padua show a profound naturalism modified bystudy of the antique.Among Donatello's followers at Florence, three were outstanding though eachmade only a few statuettes. Bertoldo di Giovanni (c. 1420-1491), friend of Lorenzo il Magnifico and master of Michelangelo, has been called the father of the bronze statuette. His bronzes reflect the classical ideals of the humanist circleof Lorenzo but, more important, they are no longer conceived as ornament for some useful object but have a life of their own, were made to be enjoyed for themselves in a Renaissance studio or salone. A number of statuettes by un-known Florentine artists of the end of the Quattrocento and the beginning of the Cinquecento show the influence of Bertoldo's intimate art. Contemporarywith him was Antonio Pollaiuolo (1429-1498), whose studies of anatomy pro-duced figures notable for their muscular tension and plasticity. Andrea Verroc-

chio (1435-1488), the master of Leonardo, also worked in the scientific traditionof the period, producing several statuettes, such as the Dancing Faun (p. 23),whose marked contrapposto gives a spirited movement to the figure. Possiblyfrom the Verrocchio workshop are a small number of genre subjects, putti andamorini, for example, derived from late antique models.It was, however, in northern Italy, especially in Padua and nearby Venice,that the production of bronze statuettes, as well as reliefs and plaquettes, flour-ished in the second half of the fifteenth and throughout the sixteenth century.Donatello had spent ten years in Padua, from 1543 to 1553, working on thebronze statues and reliefs of the high altar of the Santo and casting the greatequestrian statue of Gattemalata which stands today before that church. Fromthese projects, which required innumerable assistants, there arose a flourishingindustry of bronze working. At the same time, the University of Padua, famousthroughout Europe as a center of humanism, furthered the taste for smallbronzes, and its faculty of illustrious scholars, imbued with a passion for classi-cal learning, revealed to artists the unexplored themes of ancient literature. AtVenice, which itself had a long tradition of bronze casting, the noblemen andprosperous merchants were avid collectors of the richly ornamented bronze can-dlesticks and bowls (p. 45) and mortars decorated with classical garlands or dolphins (p. 44) with which they loved to fill their palaces. Thus there was anever present market for the bronzes of the Venetian-Paduan founders. These

bronzes were not, however, confined to the region but entered the castles andcities on the mainland and extended even beyond the Alps, to France and Ger-many. As might be expected, the small bronzes of these workshops exist in far greater number than those of the Florentine schoo1. It is noteworthy, too, thatwhile replicas or variants of statuettes made in Florence are of infrequent occur-rence, the opposite is true of those cast in the Veneto, which rarely, especiallywhen a popular subject, exist in a single example but were repeated in any num-ber of castings, and often recast at periods considerably later than that of theoriginal mode1.Bartolommeo Bellano (c. 1434-c. 1497), a pupil of Donatello, was one of theearliest of Paduan bronze sculptors. To him is ascribed the powerful gilt bronzeplaquette of the Dead Christ between two angels (p. 65), a favorite subject withsculptors of the Paduan schoo1. His statuettes are infused with the naturalismof the Florentine sculptor's mature works and are less rigorously classical than11


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those of the Paduan sculptors who followed him, notably his pupil, AndreaBriosco called Riccio (curly-head).Riccio (1470-1532) is the most important of all the Paduan makers of bronzes.His most celebrated work, on which he spent ten years (1506-1516), is the monu-mental candelabrum for the Easter candle in the Santo. At the same time aquantity of statuettes and useful objects, reliefs and plaquettes issued from hisworkshop, of which the group in the Kress Collection is exceptional both innumbers and in the superb quality of individual specimens. The large Entomb-ment relief (p. 76) was called by Migeon "one of the great masterpieces of Riccio, a worthy rival of the most moving reliefs of his famous candelabrum."Attributed to Riccio and his co-workers at Padua are numerous representationsof satyrs and satyresses, the latter apparently an invention of the Paduan school,for they have no classical prototypes (p. 80). Yet another group is that of thesmall oil lamps, imitating those of antiquity, with their fantastic combinations of human or animal heads (p. 37). A new type of statuette, which was unknownto Florence but is among the most delightful creations of the Paduan school, isrepresented by the bronzes that reproduce animals. These are based on close ob-servation, and so true to life are they in many cases that it has been suggestedthat casts were actually taken from living creatures such as crabs (p. 36) or

toads (p. 37).Another artist who is associated with the Paduan school, though he workedfor the Gonzaga family at Mantua, was Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known asAntico from a series of medals signed by him with that pseudonym. An anti-quarian spirit pervades his bronzes, which are rather dry imitations of classicalsculptures, lacking the vigorous invention and the free interpretation of antiquemotives to be found in the works of Riccio.Among the North Italian bronze sculptors of the sixteenth century JacopoSansovino (1486-1570) was an important figure. Born in Florence, this contem-porary and rival of Michelangelo worked first in Rome. By 1527 he had movedto Venice where, in the course of a long career, he completely revitalized sculp-ture in the Veneto. His suavely elegant figures in the style of the High Renais-sance suited the temper of the golden age of Titian and Tintoretto.A favorite pupil of Sansovino was Danese Cattaneo (c. 1509-1573), who did anumber of bronze statuettes as well as splendid portrait busts which are in thetradition of the great Venetian school of portrait painting.The artist who dominated the second half of the sixteenth century in the pro-duction of bronzes in Venice was Alessandro Vittoria (1525-1608). The man-nered elegance of his style is apparent in the elongated forms and graceful,flowing contours of his figures.Foremost among Florentine producers of bronze statuettes in the latter half of

the sixteenth century was Giovanni da Bologna (c. 1524-1608), a Flemish artistwho had come to Florence as a young student and remained there for the rest of his life. He made a large number of bronzes, many of which are remarkable for their delicacy of modeling and minute chiseling, as well as their patina which, incontrast to the dense black finish of Venetian bronzes of the same period, moreoften consists of a transparent lacquer that reveals the natural blond tone of thebronze. His works were extremely popular throughout Europe and had consid-erable influence upon other sculptors.With the seventeenth century the great Renaissance tradition of bronze statu-ettes came to an end. Outside Italy only Niirnberg had produced an independentschool of bronze casting, with Peter Vischer (c. 1460-1529) and his sons. TheVenus (p. 34) in the Kress Collection is an example of the South German schoolof the early sixteenth century and betrays a less idealized, more romantic inter-12


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pretation of classicism than that of analogous bronzes in Italy. Representativeof Vischer's work at its best is the beautiful and, so far as is known, unique relief of Orpheus and Eurydice (p. 96).The 460 reliefs and plaquettes in the Kress Collection form the choicest groupof these works of art in the world. Not only is it rich in unique specimens but inmany cases the Kress example is by far the finest that exists. Molinier, whosepublication4 of Renaissance plaquettes was the first of its kind and is still thestandard work on the subject, based his study for the most part on the exampleswhich Gustave Dreyfus had acquired up to the date of publication (1886), de-scribing nearly 300 plaquettes in the Dreyfus Collection.Hill has defined a plaquette as "any small flat piece of metal decorated in relief on one side only, for application as ornament."" The distinction between a relief and a plaquette is difficult to draw but, in general, it is based on relative dimen-sions; a relief if it is to be considered a plaquette must be small, but the divisionbetween them is an arbitrary one.Plaquettes were collected during the Renaissance, probably from the day theywere made, and like engravings, with which they have much in common as regardsboth reproduction and subject matter, they have been prized by collectors. Theearliest systematic collector of them in modern times was the great German author

Goethe (1749-1832), whose remarkable collection, which included medals, wasbequeathed in 1885 by his grandson to the Goethe Museum at Weimar. TodayRenaissance plaquettes are comparatively rare and even three or four of the mostusual are known by scarcely more than ten or fifteen examples, of which morethan half are probably of indifferent quality.The purpose of plaquettes was mainly decorative and some were intended toornament useful objects such as coffers, inkstands, sand boxes, sword hilts, andthe like. Most of them were mounted or framed in a setting of some kind,though this has usually disappeared. Many are pierced for suspension or attach-ment. Small plaquettes were frequently used as personal adornments, being wornaround the neck or as a pendant or used as a hat badge, as may be seen in thePortrait of a Man by Filippo Mazzola, number 28 in the present exhibition of theKress Collection. A large class of plaquettes was made from impressions of in-taglios, often from the antique gems so highly prized by Renaissance collectors, or from the numerous engraved crystals and hard stones by Renaissance artiststhemselves such as Valerio Belli and Giovanni Bernardi. There is, too, a groupof plaquettes with religious subjects which were used as paxesthe tablets pre-sented at the Mass for the Kiss of Peace. But aside from the purely utilitarianand decorative talent of their original makers, it is morely than likely that manyplaquettes, especially those of exceptionally fine quality were, as Maclagan hassuggested, "frankly meant as objects of art; a plastic parallel to the contemporary

engravings which they sometimes imitate . . . and were kept and handled andenjoyed for their own sake, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries no less thanat the present day."6Almost all Italian Renaissance plaquettes were made from wax models by the"lost wax" process, which has been described above. Only one cast in metal couldbe made from the original wax model, which was lost in the process. From this(original) metal cast a new mold would be made and a number of casts pro-duced from it, all a trifle smaller than the first original owing to the shrinkageof most metals in cooling. Theoretically, the process could be repeated indefi-nitely, just as prints from an original plate can be produced in any number. In4E. Molinier, Les Bronzes de la Renaissance. Les Plaquettes. Paris, 1886.SG. F. Hill, Medals of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1920, p. lOf.^Catalogue of Italian Plaquettes, Victoria and Albert Museum, p. 3.13


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practice, however, impressions of a print become weaker as the plate graduallywears out, and later casts of a plaquette or a medal become less sharp the further they are removed from the origina1. Thus, plaquettes and medals, like engravings,differ in quality, quite apart from the accidents of wear, by so much as they arenearer or further from the origina1. Also, plaquettes sometimes exist in differ-ent "states," with or without a certain figure, with or without an inscription, withor without a decorative border.Practically all the Italian plaquettes of interest to collectors were made between1450 and 1550, a century, roughly, that also witnessed the greatest artisic achieve-

ments in the closely allied medallic art. The large majority of plaquettes datefrom the latter half of that period, the age of the High Renaissance.As in the case of bronze statuettes, the number of artists who can defiintelv beidentified as the authors of plaquettes is comparatively smal1. A group of plaquettes, including the twelve in the Kress Collection, has been attributed toDonatello but it is very doubtful if any of them were really made by him,although they appear to be connected with his workshop. The extraordinaryportrait (p. 51), of the great architect and writer on art Leone Battista Alberti,was probably made by Alberti himself in the thirties of the fifteenth century; "thewinged eye," as Hill has suggested, "seems to be Alberti's personal device, andperhaps refers to his experiments and discoveries in the science of optics." To theSienese artist, Francesco di Giorgio are ascribed four beautiful plaquettes (pp.60-62), one of which, the Judgment of Paris, was considered by Bode to be thework of the youthful Leonardo.With few exceptions the artists who made plaquettes came from north of theApennines. As has already been noted, Donatello's influence gave rise to thePaduan school of bronze workers, foremost of whom was Riccio. He was pre-sumably head of a large bottega with which a number of artists, anonymous for the most part, must have been associated. Some scholars have concluded that thePaduan artist who signed several plaquettes Ulccrino is actually Riccio himself since that word is the Greek equivalent of the Italian Riccio (curly-head), thenickname by which Andrea Briosco is universally known.Another artist working in north Italy in the late fifteenth or early sixteenthcentury signed about ten plaquettes with the name Moderno, perhaps in rivalrywith the artist who called himself Antico. He seems to have been a goldsmith(his most famous works are the two silver plaques in Vienna) and it is likelythat most of the plaquettes attributed to him are actually castings from impres-sions taken from originals in precious metals. He was a prolific artistthere arein the Kress Collection nearly sixty plaquettes attributed to himand despite hischosen pseudonym his works abound in antique subject matter.Some north Italian plaquette artists like Enzola of Parma, Cristoforo di Gere-mia and Melioli of Mantua, Caradosso of Milan, Camelio of Venice, and Fra

Antonio da Brescia are also known as medallists. The old attribution to Melioliof a small number of plaquettes cannot, however, be sustained since in style theybear little relation to his medals; for that reason, and because they do form aclosely connected group, de Ricci chose the name Pseudo Melioli to characterizethem. Likewise the four plaquettes listed as Pseudo Fra Antonio da Brescia areso-called because of their not entirely convincing connection with that artist'smedals. Two anonymous artists, among others, who produced beautiful pla-quettes were the master who signed io-f-f- and the 'Master of the OrpheusLegend,' so-called from a series of three plaquettes illustrating that subject.Two artists who worked during the first half of the sixteenth century andwhose output of plaquettes was considerable were Valerio Belli and Giovanni

Bernardi. They were primarily engravers in crystal and many of the plaquettesattributed to them were doubtless made from intaglios.In addition to the Italian plaquettes, the Kress Collection includes a small14


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group of Flemish and French plaquettes, and a somewhat larger selection of Ger-man examples. Among the latter is the lovely Orpheus and Eurydice by Peter Vischer, referred to above.Analogies between Renaissance plaquettes and medals have been indicatedabove. The same materials, usually bronze, were used for both and the technicalmethod of casting was similar. The earlier medals were almost always cast andit was not until the sixteenth century that the process of striking medals fromdies became usual; but as Hill has pointed out, "from the artistic point of viewthe mechanical improvements were almost wholly injurious, and the best artistshave never ceased to favour the process of casting."7The method of producing the model for casting was as follows: a flat disk,usually of black slate, or sometimes of wood, formed the base, and on this theartist modeled the portrait or design in wax. The obverse and reverse were mod-eled either on the two sides of one disk or on two separate disks. The two sidesof the model were then impressed in molding material, a paste composed of fineashes or gesso ground with water. After solidifying, the molds were removed,then joined together, and the molten metal poured in. It is improbable that the"lost wax" process, in which the complete model was enclosed in molding mate-rial and the mold then heated so that the wax was melted and ran out, was em-

ployed by early medallists. From the metal casting another mold could be madeand, as with plaquettes, the casts could be repeated. Probably the wax modelcould not be used, however, more than once and the medallist would keep casts,usually in lead, of the two sides of his medals ready for use when required. Theselead casts, of which there are numerous specimens in the Kress Collection, "oftenpreserve," as Hill noted, "more than any other form, the character of the originalmodel; may indeed be actually trial proofs, such as the medallist made and after-wards hung on a nail on his studio wall, or sent to his sitter to show what hecould do."8 Occasionally the same reverse might be used for different obverses(pp.110, 111).The process of striking medals was practically the same as that of strikingcoins. An engraved die of steel was produced for each side of the medal just asone would engrave an intaglio gem. This was the method employed by the fewmedallists who struck medals in the fifteenth century. But in the sixtenth cen-tury another process was invented. The medallist carved a "punch" in relief insteel, or a number of punches, as one for the head, others for the inscription, etc.These punches were impressed on a soft metal die, which was afterwards hard-ened and used for striking. The most primitive method of striking was with ahammer; later the press came into general use.As a rule medals are circular, the obverse or front having a portrait, almostinvariably in profile, while the reverse has some kind of historical or heraldic

design. Very often the medals are pierced, as are plaquettes, for suspension or attachment. In Italy the personal device or impresa was favored for the reverse,while in Germany the reverse almost always bore a heraldic design. In the im-prese, which developed into a sort of unofficial heraldry, the element of obscurityas to their meaning was stressed. As one Italian writer put it, the personal device"should not be so obscure as to require a Sibyl to interpret it, nor so plain thatall the vulgar crowd can understand it ... it should have a motto, if possible ina foreign language, so as to disguise the meaning somewhat more, but not to7G. F. Hill, A Guide . . . to Medals of the Renaissance in the British Museum. London,1923, p. 9.*G. F. Hill, Dreyfus Collection . . . Renaissance Medals, p. v.15


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make it doubtfu1."" As will be seen in the descriptions of medals in the KressCollection, the reverses usually contain elaborate allegories, classical allusions, or mere punning devices which in many instances are meaningless today.The Renaissance medal was a personal document, conceived as commemoratinga person or, more rarely, an event. The spirit of the times, with its interest inthe individual and personal characteristics, found perhaps its most fitting vehicleof expression in the meda1. It was peculiarly a creation of the Renaissance. Inantiquity large coins, called medallions, not intended, however, primarily as amedium of exchange, were struck to commemorate Greek and Roman rulers and

were evidently used for presentation and worn as decorations. But medals of pri-vate persons not connected with the Imperial family were unheard of in Romantimes. In the Renaissance, on the other hand, anyone could have a medal of him-self cast or struck. Being a portable thing and smaller, as well as very much lessexpensive, than a painted portrait, for example, a medal could easily be sent aboutas a present to relations and friends of the person represented.Antonio Pisano of Verona, called Pisanello (c. 1395-1455), was the founder of the medallic art, the first and, indeed, the greatest of all medallists. He hadalready attained first rank as a painter of portraits and animals before he madehis first medal, on the occasion of the visit to Italy, in 1438, of the ByzantineEmperor John VIII Palaeologus, a medal of which a lead cast is in the KressCollection. The source of inspiration for this, the first truly Renaissance medal,was probably the antique Roman medallion or those Byzantine Imperial medal-lions, with their combination of a bust on the obverse with an equestrian figureon the reverse, which continued the ancient tradition. For the next ten years,from 1438 to 1449, medal after medal came from Pisanello's workshop, forminga series of masterpieces which "rank much higher in the history of art than hisextant panels or frescoes. Yet he never forgot that he was a painter; he signs hismedals always as the work of Pisano the painter. He doubtless considered themas secondary to his paintings, possibly indeed as reproductions thereof."10"The most remarkable feature of his [Pisanello's] work is that, although he isa pioneer, he nevertheless attains at one stroke the summit of his art. He hasnever been surpassed in the essential elements of medallic work; his portraitsattain a shrewd realism without sacrificing dignity; his composition has a largesimplicity, the result, as his extant drawings show, of long study and selection;his lettering is carefully modelled and arranged with constructive effect as partof his design."11 Among his most powerful portraits is that of Sigismondo Mala-testa (p. 102), the condottiere in whose character were combined many of thevices and some of the virtues of the Renaissance. Another portrait, perhaps themost subtle of all Pisanello's characterizations, is that of Don Inigo d'Avalos(p. 102), an official of the court of Alfonso V of Aragon at Naples. Among thereverses, that of the marriage medal of Leonello d'Este (p. 101), with its pleasing

and humorous device of the little god of love teaching the lion (Leonello) to sing,is one of the most beautiful of Pisanello's designs.Although Pisanello left no school, he influenced many of the medallists whoimmediately followed him, especially Matteo dei Pasti of Verona (act. 1441-1467/68), whose finest portrait is perhaps the vigorous profile of the humanistGuarino (p. 103), who had been tutor to Leonello d'Este. Admirable, too, arethe medals of Sigismondo Malatesta (p. 104), with its fine view of the castle atRimini, and of that remarkable lady whom he married in 1456, Isotta degli Atti(p. 103). The elephant on the reverse of the second medal is one of the Mala-testa devices, symbolizing superiority to small misfortunes."Paolo Giovio's Dialogue of Warlike and Amorous Devices, 1555, quoted in Hill, Medals

of the Renaissance, p. 12f.10Hill, Medals of the Renaissance, p. 36."Hill, Guide to . . . Medals of the Renaissance in the British Museum, p. 9.16


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One of the great medals in the Pisanellesque tradition is that of the SultanMohammad II (p. 106), made about 1481 by Costanzo of Ferrara, who went toConstantinople for the purpose. By comparison with the powerfully conceivedportrait and the dignified equestrian figure on the reverse of this medal, another rendering of the same subject (p. 114), by the Florentine Bertoldo, who probablymade the medal not from life but perhaps after a medal by Gentile Bellini, seemslacking in force. Clemente da Urbino was a medallist whose only authenticatedwork is the medal of Federigo da Montefeltro (p. 105), Duke of Urbino, one of the most enlightened princes and attractive personalities of the Renaissance.

Sperandio of Mantua (c. 1425-1504) was the most popular medallist of thesecond half of the fifteenth century in Italy, judging by the number of distin-guished men who sat for him. His medals (pp. 107-109) are characterized byvigorous portraiture, at times almost brutally frank, and the reverses (occasionallyadapted from those of Pisanello, as in that of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, p. 109)are frequently too crowded.One of the most important Venetian medallists of the latter half of the fif-teenth century was Giovanni Boldu (act. 1454-1473) whose medals definitelylean towards the antique. He occasionally inscribed them in both Greek andLatin (p. 110) and did not hesitate to copy freely from Roman coins (p. 111).The greatest name in the history of the Florentine medal is Niccolo Fiorentino(1430-1514). Two of his five signed medals, including that of Alfonso I d'Este(p. 115), are in the Kress Collection; a number of other medals are listed whichare possibly by him or in his manner. It is generally supposed, for example, thathe made medals of Charles VIII of France (p. 116) and members of his suite onthe occasion of the French invasion of Italy in 1494. In his manner are the medalof Savonarola (p. 117), the best of the many medals of the Dominican preacher;the fine portrait of the wealthy Florentine merchant, Filippo Strozzi (p. 117);and perhaps the most popular of all Florentine medals, the charming bust of Giovanna Albizzi (p. 118), wife of one of the leading citizens of Florence,Lorenzo Tornabuoni.Of sixteenth-century medallists Pastorino of Siena (1508-1592) was one of the most prolific and generally popular. He was apparently the fashionablemedallist of his time and did a number of portraits of Renaissance ladies (p. 119)remarkable for their elegance of dress and jewels. To Benvenuto Cellini, bestknown of Italian Renaissance craftsmen, was formerly ascribed the splendid medalof Cardinal Bembo (p. 120), historian and epigrammatist, which is now, however,considered a product of the Milanese schoo1.The most distinguished figure of the school of Milan is Leone Leoni (c. 1509-1590), who worked at the Papal Mint from 1537 to 1540, when he was sent tothe galleys for assaulting a fellow employee but was released at the instance of the Genoese Admiral, Andrea Doria. In gratitude to his deliverer he made

several medals of him, of which two are in the Kress Collection. Also representedin the Collection is his medal of Michelangelo, generally considered to be thebest rendering of the great artist's features, as well as the portrait of the infamousPietro Arentino (p. 121), whose motto "Truth begets ill-will" was his self-justifica-tion and excuse for the slanderous personal attacks, privately printed and circu-lated, that were his livelihood. Possibly by Leone Leoni is another strong bust,that of Gianello della Torre (p. 121), who made a remarkable clock for the Em-peror Charles V. Contemporary with Leone Leoni were several other artists of the Milanese school: Jacopo da Trezzo (c. 1515-1587), who made the charmingmedal of Ippolita Gonzaga, with its reverse showing the Goddess of the Dawnriding through the heavens (p. 122); Annibale Fontana (1540-1587), whose finest

medal is that of famous general Fernando Francesco II d'Avalos (p. 122); andPompeo Leoni (c 1535-1610), son of Leone and, like his father, an accomplishedsculptor, who executed the medal of the fourth Duke of Ferrara (p. 123).17


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Alfonso Ruspagiari (1521-1526) was a consummate master of low relief, asmay be seen in his Self-Portrait (p. 123) and in the exquisite and unusual medalof a nameless lady (p. 123); he delights in thin draperies, with fine folds, andornamental headdresses.A celebrated medallist of the later sixteenth century and, indeed, the last of theline of important Italian masters of the medallic art is Antonio Abondio (1538-c. 1596). He belonged to the Milanese school, but in 1566 was summoned toPrague by the Emperor Maximilian II. There or at Vienna he spent the rest of his life. He did several medals of the Emperor, of which the silver medallion(p. 124), showing on the reverse his consort Maria, is among the finest. Abondiohad considerable influence upon medallic art in Austria and Germany, althoughthe great age of the German medal was already over by the time he arrived inAustria.The beginnings of the Renaissance medal in France go back to the late MiddleAges. The series opens with the two medals representing Constantine the Greatand Heraclius (p. 125). These bronze castings, of which examples exist in vari-ous collections, were copied from originals in gold or silver which no longer exist;they are the only remaining medallions of a series representing famous rulersconnected with the history of Christianity, made for the famous patron of the

arts, Jean, Duke of Berry, at the beginning of the fifteenth century.The obverse of the first medal shows the Emperor Constantine on a stridinghorse, a conception that may well have inspired similar designs on the reverses of certain medals by Pisanello, who very possibly could have seen one of the origi-nals. The reverse of this medal has a composition of two figures, the one clothedand the other semi-nude, seated beside the Fountain of Life. They doubtlesssymbolize Christianity and Paganism and are precursors of the allegorical themeof Titian's celebrated "Sacred and Profane Love" painted about a century later.Still in the transitional stage between late Gothic and early French Renaissancestyle of the sixteenth century are several other fifteenth century medals such asthose of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany (p. 126) and Philibert II le Beau andMargaret of Austria (p. 127) which were cast, like the two preceding medals,from originals in gold.Under Francis I (1514-1547) the style of the Italian Renaissance was intro-duced into France. He especially favored Italian artists, among others BenvenutoCellini and the Veronese gem-engraver and medallist Matteo del Nassaro, whomade at least one medal of the King, of which a specimen is in the Kress Col-lection. Authors of a number of other sixteenth-century medals are unknown.The great age of the medal in France was the seventeenth century. The finestmedallist of that period, and probably the greatest of all French exponents of the art, is Guillaume Dupre (c. 1576-1643). Hill has written that "in mere bril-

liance of technique, in virtuosity generally, he is unsurpassed in the whole historyof the meda1. In the intellectual content of his portraits he is not the inferior of Bernini."12 His great medallion of Henry IV and Marie de Medicis (p. 127) isperhaps his masterpiece. Equally interesting as character portrayals are thoseof the Duke of Mantua (p. 128), made in 1612, the year of his accessionand death; and of the King's Superintendent of Finances, Pierre Jeannin(p. 129). The medal of Marie de Medicis alone (p. 130) has the peculiarity of aretrograde inscription which was a mistake, probably occasioned by the artist'shaving cut or punched his lettering in the mold, instead of building it up on hiswax mode1.JaHill, Guide to . . . Medals of the Renaissance in the British Museum, p. 76.18


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After the seventeenth century the art of the medal declined in France as wellas in the rest of Europe. An interesting example of a late medal, however, isthat of Albertine de Nivenheim (p. 131) by the Italian artist Jean-Baptiste Nini(1717-1786), who is best known for his attractive terracotta medallions of promi-nent persons at the French Court.Returning to the Renaissance, we must now consider the medals produced intwo other countries north of the Alps, Germany and the Netherlands. In the lastquarter of the fifteenth century, when Italian influence was already commencingto make itself felt in France and the Netherlands, German medallists showeda sturdy independence. The wax model, the basis of the Italian medal, wasalmost never used in Germany; instead, models were carved in wood or stone.Technically, the German medallists were superior to the Italian in casting, butthis proficiency does not compensate for the less pleasing features of Germanmedallic style when compared with that of Italy. The Germans stressed realismin portraiture, often with grotesque results, and very seldom did they attempt theimaginative reverse designs which are among the most attractive features of theItalian meda1. Instead, the reverse, if there is one, almost invariably has aheraldic design, usually the coat of arms of the person portrayed on the obverse.Before the cast medal proper was attempted in Germany there were developed,

in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, the Schauthalers or "show dollars,"large struck coins with portraits, often in rather high relief. By the beginningof the sixteenth century, the cast medal had become usual, the two principal cen-ters of production being Niirnberg, the home of goldsmithery, and Augsburg.Whether the greatest of German artists, Albrecht Diirer, actually did morethan furnish designs for medals associated with his name is debatable. In thecase of struck medals, such as that of the Emperor Charles V (p. 132) it is prob-able that he did not do more than that.The real development of German medallic art commences with Hans Schwarz(1492-c. 1527) of Augsburg, generally considered the greatest of German medal-lists. Of the more than 130 medals made by him over a period of about tenyears almost all are without reverses, and rarely are they signed. His vivid, force-ful style of portraiture may be seen in his signed (with the monogram h s)medal of Kunz von der Rosen (p. 132). To this could be applied Hill's general-ization regarding the German medal that "personal ugliness, which the Italianartist understands how to dignify and inspire with pathos or interest, is allowed bythe German to work with unmitigated force."13A younger rival of Schwarz, and one of the most prolific of German medallists(his total production comprises some 230 pieces), was Friedrich Hagenauer (act. 1525-after 1543) from Strassburg. His style is somewhat more refined, lessrelentlessly realistic than that of Schwarz, whom he superseded as leading med-

allist at Augsburg, but is proportionately lacking in strength. He was especiallyskillful in handling low relief, as his portraits of Sebastian and Ursula Liegsalz(p. 133) clearly show.The style of the Augsburg school is broader, more sculptural than that of Niirnberg, where the tradition of goldsmithery had developed a highly efficienttechnique, especially as regards minute detail, resulting in a style that is smaller in scale and more delicate. Mathes Gebel, who became a citizen of Niirnberg in1523 and worked as a medallist until 1554, is the finest representative of theschoo1. Typical of his medals, in its refinement of detail, is that of ChristophKress (p. 134), an ancestor of the owner of this Collection, which, as Hill noted,"is probably surpassed by few existing medals in delicate truth of modelling. In"Hill, Medals of the Renaissance, p. 115.19


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this respect it stands comparison admirably with the best Italian work of thesixteenth century; nor (and this is remarkable with German work) does it comefar behind it in delicacy of feeling."14The most dexterous medallist, technically speaking, of the Niirnberg schoolwas Hans Reinhardt the Elder (act. 1539-1581), who executed the portrait of Charles V (p. 134) with its complex heraldic design on the reverse. Another medallist of the school is Joachim Deschler (c. 1500-1571/72), whose extraordi-nary facing portrait of Paumgartner (p. 135) exhibits that element of coarsenesswhich characterizes so much of German medallic production.As in Germany, so in the Netherlands it was not until the beginning of thesixteenth century that a great medallist appears. The great Flemish painter,Quentin Metsys (c. 1460-1530), like Diirer, was not a medallist by professionand his work remained without influence on his successors. His noble medal of Erasmus (p. 135), in the words of Hill, "ranks in the purity of its outlines andthe nobility of its conception with the great portraits of the world."15 The bestknown representative of the Flemish school is Jacob Jonghelinck (1531-1606).Several medals by him in the present collection bear witness to his mastery of thetechnique. Another medallist of repute is Steven van Heerwijck (act. 1557-1565),long miscalled Steven of Holland. He is the author of a remarkable series of portraits, including by far the finest portrait medals of Elizabethan England.Actually that country never had a real school of native medallists until longafter the Renaissance was over, and even in the seventeenth century English artistsof note were few.This collection of Renaissance bronzes finds its ideal setting in the NationalGallery of Art. These small works of art, of high artistic interest in themselvesare, at the same time, a fitting complement to the major arts of the Renaissance

so well represented by the paintings and sculptures in the Gallery. In many waysthese bronzes are among the most eloquent expressions of the taste and intellec-tual life of that great age. As visual documents of the spirit of the Renaissancethey are, therefore, of the greatest historical interest. To lovers of beauty, tostudents of art, in its historical as well as practical aspects, they have much tocontribute.Perry B. CottAssistant Chief Curator "Hill, Medals of the Renaissance, p. 115.^Hill, Guide to . . . Medals of the Renaissance in the British Museum, p. 62.20


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SMALL BRONZES


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Bronze, 6 in.A 168.6CDancing FaunAndrea Verrocchio, 1435-14882?


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Bronze, 5 3/16 in.A 169.7C

Saint George and the DragonFlorentine, XV Century24


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Bronze, 5 3/4 in.A 167.5CSpinarioFlorentine, XV Century25


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Bronze, 9 11/16 in.A 170.8CSaint SebastianRiccio, 1470-1532

26


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Bronze, 4 7/16 in.A 188.26CChild carrying a sea shellRiccio, 1470-153228


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Bronze. 7 1/8 in.A 179.17CBacchusFlorentine, Early XVI Century30


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31


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Bronze, 6 3/4 in.A 183.21C

Virgin of the AnnunciationFrench, XV Century33


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Bronze, parcel-gilt, 9 inVenus

South German, About 150034


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Bronze, 5 23/32 in.A 195.33CChild on a Dolphin

Peter Vischer, the Elder, 1460-152935


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Bronze, h. 1 7/8, w. 6 23/32 in.Box in the shape of a CrabRiccio, 1470-1532Bronze, h. 3 1/2, 1. 8 7/8 in.Sea Monster Riccio, 1470-1532

A 239.80CA 228.69C36


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Bronze, h. 2 23/32, 1. 5 3/8 in.A 221.62CLampPaduan, Early XVI CenturyBronze, h. 2 11/32, 1. 5 1/8 in.Toad, with a tiny toad on its back Paduan, Early XVI CenturyA 241.84C37


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G 3o


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Bronze, h. 3, 1. 7 7/16, w. 5 7/16 in. A 213.54C.A,B,ECasket with scenes from the life of a saintPadliav, Ahout 150039


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---- *asr: -SH-Bronze, h. 3 1/16, 1. 8, w. 4 23/32 in.Oblong casket {lid, above; front, below)Paduan, About 1500A 2H.55C40


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Bronze, h. 2 29/32, w. 6 11/16 in.SandboxPaduan, About 1500A 216.57C41


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Bronze, h. 5 1/8, 1. 10 3/4 in.Applique in the shape of a double scallop shellbetween dolphins (one of a pair)Italian, Early XVI Century

A 276.120CBronze, h. 7 9/32, w. 4 29/32 in.Pair of door knockers in the shape of horned and bearded masksItalian, XVI Century

A 274-275.118-119C45


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Bronze, h. 8 9/32, w. 6 13/32 in.Door knocker with two cornucopias andtwo interlaced dolphinsItalian (Venetian?), XVI CenturyA 272.116C47


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Bronze, d. 8 5/32Applique in the shape of achild's head against a laurel-wreathItalian, XVII CenturyA 212.53C48


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RELIEFS AND PLAQUETTES


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Bronze, h. 7 29/32, w. 3 11/32 in.Self-PortraitLeone Battista Alberti, 1404-1472A 278.1B51


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Bronze, d. 6 23/32 in.A 280.3BA Satyr and a Bacchante

Attributed to Donatello, c. 1386-146652


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Bronze, h. 20 7/32, w. 11 3/4 in.Saint John the BaptistAttributed to Donatello, c. 1386-1466

A 166.3C53


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Gilt bronze, h. 6 21/32, w. 4 11/32 in.Madonna and Child with tuo angelsAttributed to Donatello, c. 1386-1466

A 283.6B54


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Gilt bronze, h. 8, w. 6 in.Madonna and ChildAttributed to Donateleo, c. 1386-1466A 284.7B55


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Bronze, d. 8 23/32 in.A 285.8BMadonna and Child with four angels

Attributed to Donatello, c. 1386-146656


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Bronze, h. 3 3/4, w. 4 5/8 in.The dead. Christ supported by angelsAttributed to Donatello, c. 1386-1466

A 286.9B57


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Bronze, h. 7 1/2, w. 5 13/32 in.A 291.14BMadonna and ChildAntonio Rossellino, 1427-147859


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*'y r' .id> />=-. -; vv: .. - - ^x'.w;-' n v'?-'-"'-;/ j*' ^S^^?%*-" ^0 -^fc-' |u^|is $?^^ jh^ / j}-> 4"; -^ .' '^ '_>*.' 'i i.^ff B^B i.''*.'"- -'/v..m,-- 2^Z i \ .-** .-''^-*% *.I1/^ T.IB5J ^^K^F|E*%ip - - xi89Rijjp?3ibIK WJ^^fmi^!Bronze, h. 21 5/8, w. 14 11/16 in.Saint JeromeFrancesco di Giorgio, 1439-1502A 165.2C61


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Bronze, h. 8 11/16, w. 5 3/4 in.A 279.2P,Bust of AristotleFlorentine, XV Century63


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Bronze, h. 4 3/16, w. 4 11/16 in.Triumph of CupidFlorentine, XV CenturyA 296.19B64


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Gilt bronze, h. 9 11/32, w. 7 3/16 in.The dead Christ between two angelsBartolommeo Bei.i.ano, c. 14-34-f. 1497A 292.15B65


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Bronze, h. 2 3/4, w. 2 23/32 in. A 339.62BHorseman fighting t/iree lionsGianfrancEsco Enzola, Act. 1456-1478lironze, d. 2 7/32 in.A pollo, Venus, Mars and Vulcan'Master M.C.', About 1500A 344.67B Bronze, d. 2 in.A 343.66B

Nymph carried off by a horseman'Master M.C, About 150067


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Download - Renaissance bronzes, statuettes, reliefs and plaquettes, medals and coins from the Kress Collection / [with an introd. by Perry B. Cott]

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