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Matteo de' Pasti

The Malatesta Elephant in a Meadow [reverse], c. 1450

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G16

Medium

bronze

Dimensions

overall (diameter): 8.39 cm (3 5/16 in.)
gross weight: 285.07 gr (0.628 lb.)
axis: 12:00

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1957.14.651.b

Artists / Makers

Matteo de' Pasti (artist) Italian, c. 1420 - 1467/1468

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

around top circumference: OPVS MATHEI DE PASTIS V[eronensis]; around bottom circumference: M CCCC XLVI

Provenance

Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris; his heirs; purchased with the entire Dreyfus collection 9 July 1930 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 31 January 1944 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1957 to NGA.

[1] The Duveen Brothers Records document the firm’s sixteen year pursuit and eventual acquisition of the Dreyfus collection, which included paintings, sculptures, small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes. Bequeathed as part of his estate to Dreyfus’ widow and five children (a son and four daughters), who had differing opinions about its disposition, the collection was not sold until after his widow’s death in April 1929. Duveen did not wish to separate Dreyfus’ collection of small bronzes, medals, and plaquettes, and it was sold intact to the Kress Foundation for a price that was met by installment payments every three months. (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 301, box 446, folders 3 and 4; reel 302, box 447, folders 1-6; reel 303, box 448, folders 1 and 2; reel 330, box 475, folder 4.) See also George Francis Hill’s discussion "A Note on Pedigrees" in his catalogue, The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Renaissance Medals, Oxford, 1931: xii, which was commissioned by Duveen Brothers.

Associated Names

Dreyfus, Gustave
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.

Exhibition History

1984: Joseph Ternbach: Conservator - Collector, The Queens Museum, Flushing, New York, 1984-1985, no. 57.

1994: The Currency of Fame: Portrait Medals of the Renaissance, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Frick Collection, New York; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1994-1995, no. 12, repro.

2011: The Portrait in Renaissance Italy: From Masaccio to Bellini, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011-2012, no. 119, repro. (shown only in New York).

Bibliography

1883: Armand, Alfred. Les médailleurs italiens des quinzième et seizième siècles. 2nd ed. 3 vols. Paris, 1883-1887: 1: 21, no. 20.

1908: Migeon, Gaston. "La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus, V: Les plaquettes." Les Arts 80 (August 1908): 10, no. viii.

1930: Hill, George Francis. A Corpus of Italian Medals of the Renaissance before Cellini. 2 vols. London, 1930: no. 167.

1931: Hill, George Francis. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection: Renaissance Medals. Oxford, 1931:no. 59.

1944: Middeldorf, Ulrich and Oswald Goetz. Medals and Plaquettes from the Sigmund Morgenroth Collection. Chicago, 1944: no. 21.

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: 164.

1979: Sasser, Elizabeth. "Reflections upon the Sources and Iconography of the Elephant in the Sculptural Decoration of the Malatesta Temple at Rimini" Explorations in Renaissance Culture 5: 46, fig. 3.

1983: De Lorenzi, Giovanna. Medaglie di Pisanello e della sua cerchia. Museo del Bargello, Florence, 1983: no. 28.

1983: Middeldorf, Ulrich and D. Stiebral. Renaissance Medals and Plaquettes. Firenze, 1983: no. 26.

1984: Pollard, John Graham. Italian Renaissance Medals in the Museo Nazionale of Bargello. 3 vols. Florence, 1984: no. 40.

1996: Luciano, Eleonora. "Diva Isotta and the Medals of Matteo de'Pasti." The Medal 29 (1996): 6-10, fig. 2.

1997: Glinsman, Lisha Deming. "Renaissance Portrait Medals by Matteo de'Pasti." Studies in the History of Art 57 (1997): 99, fig 10.

2007: Pollard, John Graham. Renaissance Medals. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. 2 vols. Washington, 2007: 1:no. 31, repro.

2009: Pasini, Pier Giorgio. Il tesoro di Sigismondo e le medaglie di Matteo de' Pasti. Bologna, 2009: repro. 58.

2014: Aurenhammer, Hans. "Liberalitas: The Image of a Friendly Virtue as a Hidden Self-Portrait in Leon Battista Alberti's Della pittura." In Renaissance Love: Eros, Passion, and Friendship in Italian Art around 1500. Edited by Jeanette Kohl, Marianna Koos, and Adrian W.B. Randolph. Berlin, 2014: 149-162, esp. 160-161, 160 fig. 6.