Copy of the "Death Mask" of Dante Alighieri
sculptor
Unknown
Datelate 19th century
Place MadeItaly, Europe
MediumPlaster
Dimensionsheight: 21.59 cm (8 1/2 in.)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberU27e60
eMuseum ID724273
EmbARK ObjectID24328
TMS Source ID8868
Last Updated10/26/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryIsabella 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.
BibliographyNotesCharles 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)
Dakota Jackson, "Isabella and the Dante Society," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2 November 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/isabella-and-dante-society
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.
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)
Dakota Jackson, "Isabella and the Dante Society," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 2 November 2021, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/isabella-and-dante-society
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.
ProvenanceNotesGift from the Dante Society, Cambridge, Massachusetts to Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1885.
