This white plaster object shows the mask-like face of an older man with a large hooked nose and prominent pointed chin. He has thin, downturned lips and an underbite. He is clean shaven. His round eyes are partially open and heavily lidded with glowering eyebrows and a lined forehead.
Italian
Copy after a cast of the "Death Mask" of Dante Alighieri,
late 19th century
Plaster
,
21.59 cm (8 1/2 in.)
Object details
Accession number
U27e60
Primary Creator
Italian
Full title
Copy after a cast of the "Death Mask" of Dante Alighieri
Creation Date
late 19th century
Object Case
Dante Case
Provenance
Gift from the Dante Society, Cambridge, Massachusetts to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1885.
Dimensions
21.59 cm (8 1/2 in.)
Display Media
Plaster
Web Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Permanent Gallery Location
Long Gallery
Bibliography
Charles Eliot Norton. On the Original Portraits of Dante (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1865), pp. 11-18. (as cast from a mask in the collection of the artist Seymour Kirkup (1788-1880); after a death mask of Dante Alighieri made by Guido II Novello da Polenta (d. 1330))Richard Thayer Holbrook. "The Torrigiani 'Death Mask' and Other So-Called Death-Masks of Dante" in Richard Thayer Holbrook. Portraits of Dante, From Giotto to Raffael [sic]: A Critical Study, with a Concise Iconography (Boston, 1911), pp. 36-64. ("Naples Bronze" [Museo Nazionale, Naples, no. 10516] as source for "Dante death masks," dated about 1450)Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925), p. 94.Rollin Hadley. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 7 (17 Oct. 1965), p. 2. Jonathan Nelson. "Dante Portraits in Sixteenth Century Florence." Gazette des Beaux-Arts (September 1992), pp. 71, 77. (as probably after the same model as Museo Nazionale, Naples, no. 10516)Nathaniel Silver "Isabella Stewart Gardner, Simone Martini, and Gold-Ground Paintings in America" in Nathaniel Silver (ed.). Simone Martini in Orvieto. Exh. cat. (Boston, MA: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2022) p. 17, fig. 4.
Rights and reproductions
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Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
