A Young Noblewoman

Said to have been found 1877-1878 in Naples;[1] Alessandro Castellani [1823-1883], Rome; (his estate sale, at his palace by H. Hoffmann and Charles Mannheim, Rome, 17 March - 10 April 1884, 12th day [29 March 1884], no. 540); Corvisieri; (Ciampolini, Florence); sold by 1902 to (Stefano Bardini [1836-1922], Florence); sold 1909 to (Jacques Seligmann, Paris);[2] sold October 1909 to Thomas Fortune Ryan [1851-1928], New York;[3] his estate; (his estate sale, American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, New York, 23-25 November 1933, no. 416); (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] Wilhelm von Bode, "Desiderio da Settignano und Francesco Laurana: Zwei Italienischen Frauenbüsten des Quattrocento im Berliner Museum," _Jahrbuch der Köninglich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen_ 9 (1888): 216. [2] Information on the sculpture's early provenance, its acquisition by Corvisieri and Ciampolini (the latter a Florentine art dealer), the sale to Bardini, and Bardini's ownership, comes from Chrysa Damianaki, _The female portrait busts of Francesco Laurana_, Rome, 2000: 106-108, 182-184 nn. 113-130. She cites a 1910 court declaration by Italo Palmerini of the Ufficio per l’Esportazione degli Oggetti di Antichità e d’Arte of the Florentine Soprintendenza, elaborating on the provenance and declaring the bust a skillful fake. It is possible that "Corvisieri" is Costantino Corvisiersi (1822-1898); see https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costantino_Corvisieri, accessed 27 December 2019. A Vincenzo Ciampolini is referenced in "Giurisprudenza Contemporanea: Giudicati Italiani," _Rivista Penale di Dottrina, Legislazione e Giurisprudenza_ II of 2nd serie, vol. 22, fasc. 4 (26 October 1885): 318 n. 1-2, and may be the same dealer discussed by Damianaki. [3] The invoice for the NGA bust and its companion bust of a man, dated 4 October 1909, is in the Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, 1904-1978, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington (available on-line: https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/jacques-seligmann--co-records-9936): Series 2.1, Collectors, Box 203, Folder 1: Ryan, Thomas F., 1909-1926, undated; copy in NGA curatorial files. [4] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.