Object details
Object number
SOn4
Creator(s)
Italian, Liguria
Title
Doorway with Relief of Saint George and the Dragon
Date
15th century
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
405.8 x 238.8 cm (159 3/4 x 94 in.)
Additional Dimensions
Relief: 66 x 208 cm (26 x 81 7/8 in.)
Provenance
Said to have come from a house in Savona, a port city in Liguria, near Genoa.Purchased from the antiquarian and dealer Professor Emilio Costantini, Florence for about 7,560 lire on 6 October 1897.
Commentary
This doorway is the original formal entrance to the Museum. Carved in Liguria, Italy in the 1400s, the lintel features a scene of Saint George, a Christian knight who saved a city (and its princess) from a marauding dragon.
Bibliography
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 3. (as "Italian Renaissance")
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 168. (as from Florence)
Morris Carter. "Mrs. Gardner & The Treasures of Fenway Court" in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed.). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 57.
Rollin Hadley. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 7, no. 33 (12 Apr. 1964), p. 2. (as Renaissance)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), pp. 136-37, no. 168. (as Genoese, 15th century)
Mauro Mussolin. "Fiori di blasoneria. Gli stemmi di Sisto IV e Antonio Basso della Rovere d'Aragona ne sovrapporta di Villa La Pietra a Firenze" in Machtelt Israëls and Louis A Waldman (eds.). Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors (Florence, 2013), pp. 249, 831, fig. 7. (as late 15th century)
Gallery
Outside
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