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The head and shoulders of a cleanshaven man are carved from white marble lightly streaked in gray in this freestanding sculpture. In this view, the shoulders are square to us, but he turns his head to our right. His left eyebrow, to our right, appears to cocked as he looks into the distance, and he has a sweeping nose with a rounded tip. His long upper lip overhangs the lower lip in a slight overbite. His hair is parted down the middle and ends in curls that angle from eye-level framing his forehead to ear-level at the back of his neck. He wears a high-collared breastplate over linked mail. The breastplate is ornamented with bands of flowers, dots, and other geometric designs. A strap and buckle hang from the neck area. The sculpture ends in a blunt, straight edge across the bottom, and it rests on a brown stone pedestal in front of a gray background.
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The head and shoulders of a cleanshaven man are carved from white marble lightly streaked in gray in this freestanding sculpture. In this view, the shoulders are square to us, but he turns his head to our right. His left eyebrow, to our right, appears to cocked as he looks into the distance, and he has a sweeping nose with a rounded tip. His long upper lip overhangs the lower lip in a slight overbite. His hair is parted down the middle and ends in curls that angle from eye-level framing his forehead to ear-level at the back of his neck. He wears a high-collared breastplate over linked mail. The breastplate is ornamented with bands of flowers, dots, and other geometric designs. A strap and buckle hang from the neck area. The sculpture ends in a blunt, straight edge across the bottom, and it rests on a brown stone pedestal in front of a gray background.

National Gallery of Art · Sculpture

Astorgio Manfredi

Mino da Fiesole

Date
1455
Medium
marble
Dimensions
overall: 51.5 x 54.2 x 27.7 cm (20 1/4 x 21 5/16 x 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
Sculpture · Bust
Accession number
1942.9.135
Credit line
Widener Collection
Time span
1401 to 1500
Department
CSD
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • Florentine
  • male
  • portrait
  • European Sculpture 1300-1800
  • Renaissance
  • Manfredi, Astorgio
Provenance

Louis-Charles Timbal [1821-1880], Paris.[1] Baron Arthur de Schickler [1828-1919], Paris, and Martinvast, Normandy (near Cherbourg); by inheritance to his daughter, Marguerite, Comtesse Hubert de Pourtalès [1870-1956], Paris, and Martinvast, Normandy; sold April 1919 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris) in part-share agreement with (Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York) and (Arnold Seligmann & Co., Paris);[2] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, after purchase 13 January 1922 by funds of the Estate;[3] gift 1942 to NGA. [1] _Duveen Sculpture in Public Collections of America_, New York, 1944: no. 108, repro. [2] The Baron's daughter married Comte Hubert de Pourtalès in 1890, and was her father's sole heiress. Edward Fowles (_Memories of Duveen Brothers_, London, 1976: 102-103, 134) discusses the original purchase agreement with Wildenstein and Seligmann, and the subsequent 1922 distribution of the works among the three dealers. [3] Provenance according to Widener card files in NGA curatorial records.

Inscription

on bottom and inside of base: ASTORGIVS.MANFREDVS./ SECVDVS.FAVENTIE.DOMINVS / ANNO.XLII.ETATIS.SVE / 1455 / OPVS.NINI

NGA object ID 1274. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.