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Desiderio da Settignano

The Christ Child (?), c. 1460

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 6

Medium

marble

Dimensions

overall: 30.5 x 26.5 x 16.3 cm (12 x 10 7/16 x 6 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1943.4.94

Artists / Makers

Desiderio da Settignano (artist) Florentine, c. 1429 - 1464

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Oratory of San Francesco dei Vanchettoni, Florence, before 1756;[1] sold 1940 to Eugenio Venturi, Florence, probably for (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] purchased 1942 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1943 to NGA.

[1] Giuseppe Richa, Notizie storiche delle chiese fiorentine, 10 vols., Florence, 1754-1762: 4(1756):92, as by Donatello. This bust and the bust The Young Saint John the Baptist (NGA 1943.4.79) were each placed in a niche above a side door on either side of the high altar. The doors both led into the "Relic Room." The busts were seen there and listed as by Donatello in numerous Florence guidebooks until they were sold.

[2] Walter Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz: Ein Kunstgeschichtliches Handbuch, 6 vols., Frankfurt, 1940: 2:137, no. 16.

[3] Documents from the Kress Foundation, now in NGA curatorial files, indicate that the Foundation was considering the acquisition of the sculpture as early as 1940.

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Oratory of S. Francesco dei Vanchettoni
Venturi, Eugenio

Exhibition History

1946: Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. A-148.

2006: Desiderio da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence, Musée du Louvre, Paris; Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006-2007, no. 10, repro.

2009: Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture, High Museum of Art, Atlanta; The J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2009-2010, repro. pl. 12 (shown only in Atlanta).

2019: Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence, Palazzo Strozzi and Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (as Verrocchio: Master of Leonardo); National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, Florence catalogue, no. 7.3, repro; not in Washington catalogue.

Bibliography

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. 55-59.

1944: Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 10, repro.

1945: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 178, repro., as The Holy Child.

1949: Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 175, note 19, 74-76.

1957: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 93.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 401, repro.

1961: Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 38, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 152.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 135, repro.

1976: Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 19.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 626, no. 972, repro.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 72, repro.

1995: Coonin, Arnold Victor. "Portrait Busts of Children in Quattrocento Florence." Metropolitan Museum Journal 30 (1995):61-71, repro.

2000: National Gallery of Art Special Issue. Connaissance des Arts. Paris, 2000:59.

2010: Bellandi, Alfredo. Gregorio di Lorenzo: Il Maestro delle Madonne di Marmo. Morbio Inferiore, 2010: 148, 156 fig. 148, 388.

2011: Bormand, Marc. "De la naissance à la mort. Diversité d'espression dans l'oeuvre de Desiderio da Settignano." In Connors, Joseph, Alessandro Nova, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Gerhard Wolf, eds. Papers from a colloquium held at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, Max-Planck-Institut, and at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, May 9-12, 2007 on occasion of the exhibition in Florence dedicated to Desiderio da Settignano. Venice, 2011:31, repro. p. 32.