Bust of Saint John the Baptist
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The bust length format of the Museum's marble, truncated in a flat, horizontal base, recalls contemporary portrait sculpture. Portrait busts were popular in Florence from the 1450s onward and became a speciality of artists such as Mino da Fiesole and Antonio Rossellino, the latter being the probable teacher of the unidentified Master of the Marble Madonnas. The hole at the front of the bust would have held a bronze rendition of the Baptist's slender reed cross.
Guidobaldo detto Guido Bourbon del Monte (1860-1917), Florence, as by Mino da Fiesole, by 1887-1917 [1];
By descent to his daughter, Stefania Bourbon del Monte Boncompagni Ludovisi(1888-1984), Florence, as by Mino da Fiesole, by February 21, 1922;
Purchased from Boncompagni Ludovisi by the dealer Edouard Larcade (1871-1945), Paris, February 21, 1922 [2];
With Luigi Galli, Carate Brianza, Italy, and Adolph Loewi, Inc., Los Angeles, stock no. 14909, as by Rossellino or the Master of the Marble Madonnas, by October 1967-1968 [3];
Purchased from Galli and Adolph Loewi, Inc. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1968.
NOTES:
[1] In the catalogue for the exhibition, Esposizione Donatelliana nel R. Museo Nazionale in Firenze, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, 1887, this sculpture’s lender is identified as Bourbon Del Monte March. Guido – Firenze.
[2] A copy of a handwritten statement of sale, signed by Stefania Boncompagni Ludovisi and dated February 21, 1922, is in the NAMA curatorial files. In the statement, Boncompagni Ludovisi identifies the sculpture as an uninventoried object from her family’s collection.
[3] Frick Art Reference Library, New York, MS.129 Loewi-Robertson Archive, box 32, stock book 1939-1968, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. The business relationship between Galli and Adolph Loewi, Inc. is unclear in this instance; they may have owned the sculpture on joint account, or Loewi may have been acting as agent for Galli. The sculpture was in Galli’s possession.
Exposizione Donatelliana nel R. Museo Nazionale in Firenze, exh. cat. (Florence: Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 1887), 29, as S. Giovanni Battista giovinetto.
“Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: July-September 1968,” The Art Quarterly 32, no. 1 (1969): 72, (repro.), as Bust of St. John the Baptist.
“Checklist of Acquisitions,” Bulletin (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) 4, no. 12 (May 1971): 17-18, (repro.), as Bust of St. John the Baptist.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 85, (repro.), as St. John the Baptist.
Ulrich A. Middeldorf, “Un Ecce Homo del Maestro delle Madonna di Marmo,” Arte Illustrata 7, no. 57 (March 1974): 2.
Ulrich Middeldorf, Raccolta di scritti, that is Collected Writings, vol. 2, 1939-1973 (Florence: SPES, 1980), 345, as The Young St. John.
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 54-55, (repro.), as Bust of Saint John the Baptist.
