Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars by Pope-Hennessy, John - 1965

The statuettes and plaquettes in the Samuel H. Kress Collection form one of the most distinguished groups of Renaissance bronzes to be found in any public or private collection. They incorporate the famous collection assembled during more than forty years by the French collector Gustave Dreyfus, which was acquired by the Kress Foundation in 1941 and was given to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in 1957. The 459 plaquettes offer an unrivaled survey of the small reliefs of Riccio, Moderno, Valerio Belli and other bronze sculptors, in examples of superb quality, and include major works by Alberti, Francesco di Giorgio and Peter Vischer the Younger. The 130 statuettes and utensils include figure statuettes, small animal bronzes inkstands, candlesticks, table bells and mortars. Of the 589 objects catalogued and reproduced in this volume, 523 are by Italian artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; the others come in the main from the Netherlands, France and Germany. All the statuettes and plaquettes in the Kress Collection are illustrated in this volume, for the most part in their original sizes. With 616 illustrations.