Object details
Object number
S30s38
Creator(s)
French
Title
Bust of a Woman
Date
19th century
Medium
Painted and gilded wood and plaster
Dimensions
48 cm (18 7/8 in.)
Provenance
Collection of Émile Gavet (1830–1904) by 1897.
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the Gavet sale at Galerie Georges Petit, Paris for 3,900 francs on 1 June 1897, lot 99, through Fernand Robert, her regular agent in Paris (as Italian, late 15th century).
Commentary
Isabella Gardner bought this work at a Paris auction in 1897. It was called a work of the Renaissance, but some critics noted that the woman’s hair and jewelry seemed strikingly timeless or even modern. Standards of beauty, especially of dress and hairstyle, change very quickly and even careful artists find it nearly impossible to escape the fashions of their own time. The way the figure is cut off through the chest is typical of 15th-century busts, as can be seen in other portraits in the museum.
Once thought to be made of terracotta or stucco, this bust is made with an unusual combination of wood and plaster. The necklace is composed of individual pieces of wood nailed into the base.
Bibliography
Galerie Georges Petit. Catalogue des objets d'art et de haute curiosité de la Renaissance: tableaux, tapisseries composant la collection de M. Émile Gavet (Paris, May 31-June 9, 1897), p. 38, lot 99. (as Italian, end of the 15th century)
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 269. (as a 19th-century imitation of the Italian, late 15th century style)
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 6, no. 12 (18 Nov. 1962), p. 2. (as 15th century or 19th century)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 170, no. 217, ill.
Alan Chong. "Émile Gavet: Patron, Collector, Dealer" in Virginia Brilliant (ed.). Gothic Art in the Gilded Age: Medieval and Renaissance Treasures in the Gavet-Vanderbilt-Ringling Collection. Exh. cat. (Sarasota, FL: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art; Newport: The Preservation Society of Newport County, 2009), pp. 11 fig. 7, 13 fig. 9, 15 fig. 11, 20 n. 70. (as 19th century, style of late 15th century)
Gallery
Gothic Room
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