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Giovanni della Robbia

The Young Christ (?), c. 1500/1510

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G15

Medium

terracotta

Dimensions

overall: 37.6 x 36.9 x 18.2 cm (14 13/16 x 14 1/2 x 7 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1943.4.73

Artists / Makers

Giovanni della Robbia (artist) Florentine, 1469 - 1529/1530

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Princess Beatrice of Spain [1884-1966]; purchased 1932 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris) possibly through King Manuel of Portugal [1889-1932];[1] sold 1940 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1943 to NGA.

[1] The Duveen prospectus, in NGA curatorial files, states that the sculpture was purchased through the intermediary of King Manuel of Portugal. Duveen's Paris branch cabled the New York branch on 7 March 1932 that the bust had been shipped to New York that day. See Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series II.A. Files regarding works of art, reel 137, box 282, folder 17: Della Robbia, Giovanni: "Bust of a Boy, St. John," ex Infanta Beatriz of Spain; copies in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Beatrice of Spain, Princess
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Manuel of Portugal, King

Exhibition History

1938: Eighteenth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Italian Gothic and Early Renaissance Sculptures [cover title: Italian Sculpture 1250-1500], Detroit Institute of Arts, 1938, no. 66, repro.

Bibliography

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 233, no. A-48, as Bust of the Young Christ.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 254, repro. 234, as Bust of the Young Christ.

1944: Duveen Brothers, Inc. Duveen Sculpture in Public Collections of America: A Catalog Raisonné with illustrations of Italian Renaissance Sculptures by the Great Masters which have passed through the House of Duveen. New York, 1944: figs. 175-177.

1945: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 189, repro.

1976: Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 41.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 198, repro.

2022: Conservation Division's Fiftieth Anniversary Committee. "Innovation and Collaboration: Fifty Years of Conservation at the National Gallery." Art for the Nation no. 66 (Fall 2022): 6, fig. 6.