Saint Helena, Empress

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Saint Helena, Empress

ArtistAttributed to Desiderio da Settignano (Italian, 1429 - 1464)

Place of OriginItaly (Florence)

Dateabout 1460-1464

Dimensions22 5/8 × 15 5/8 × 1 5/8 in. (57.5 × 39.7 × 4.1 cm)

MediumPietra serena (dark gray sandstone)

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1938.122

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 19

Label TextDisplayed again after many decades off view, this low relief profile bust of a woman was acquired by the Museum in 1938 as a work by the renowned 15th-century Florentine sculptor Desiderio da Settignano. In the 1800s it was considered a masterpiece by the even more famous Donatello, but by the mid-20th century had been demoted to the rank of a late 19th-century imitation—in short, a forgery. Recent scholarship has now “rehabilitated” the sculpture as a work of art from the Renaissance. Many factors have contributed to the reassessment of this object. Most importantly, it is now documented that the relief was in the possession of Englishman Samuel Woodburn, who obtained it in Italy by the early 1840s, long before forgeries of Renaissance sculpture became popular. Secondly, the sculpture was carved from pietra serena, a soft stone that did not permit the same refinement of execution as marble, which was more commonly utilized by Desiderio and his circle. Pietra serena is more susceptible to damage from over-zealous cleaning, as the Toledo relief experienced at some point prior to 1913. These issues have clouded objective assessment of the sculpture, but art historians have recently studied it anew. It is now generally regarded as 15th-century Florentine, with some scholars asserting, again, that it is from the hand of Desiderio himself. The subject of the relief, too, has been revisited. Once variously thought to represent the Virgin Mary, Saint Catherine, or Saint Cecilia, the figure, crowned with both a diadem and a halo, is now identified as Saint Helena, the mother of Roman Emperor Constantinewho was an influential early convert to Christianity.Published ReferencesPerkins, Charles C., Tuscan Sculptors, Their Lives, Works and Times, London, 1864, p. 151, ill. by an engraving, pl. XX (as Donatello).

Burger, W., Trésors d'Art en Angleterre, Paris, 1865, p. 445.

Da Prato, C., Desiderio da Settignano e diverse Opere sue, Firenze, 1870, p. 46 (suggested an attribution to Desiderio).

Semper, Hans, Donatello, seine Zeit und Schule, Wien, 1875.

Bode, Wilhelm von, Italienische Bildhauer, 1887.

Hughes, Rupert, "The Masterpieces of Italian Sculpture," Godey's Magazine, New York, June 1895, pp. 630-639, repr. p. 631.

Reymond, Marcel, La Sculpture Florentine, Florence, 1898 (as Donatello).

Bertaux, E., "Autour de Donatello," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, S. 3, vol. 27, September 1899, p. 242 (as Donatello).

Müntz, La Renaissance, I, 1899.

Bode, Wilhelm von, Denkmäler der Renaissance, Sculptur Toscanas, vol. 6, Munich 1892-1905, p. 94, pl. 296B (called St. Catherine by Desiderio).

Crawford, David A.E.L., (Lord Balcarres), Donatello, London, 1903, pp. 172-173.

Schubring, Paul, Donatello: Des Meisters Werke, Stuttgart, 1907, pp. 177, 202 (authenticity doubted, later revoked) (Not in TMA Library. Quoted by Pope Hennessy, 1974, p. 264, note 31).

Venturi, Adolfo, Storia Dell' Arte Italiana, Milan, 1908, vol. 6, pp. 424-425, note 5 (as modern).

Cruttwell, Maud, Donatello, London, 1911, p. 144 (by a misinterpretation of Semper ascribes to Bastianini) (Does not mention Semper. Crutwell says not 15c., modern, suggestes Bastianini).

Phillipps, Claude, "Italian Sculpture of the Renaissance," The Daily Telegraph, London, June, 1912.

Schottmüller, Thieme-Becker Künstler-Lexikon, vol. IX, Leipzig, 1913, p. 133 (skeptical as Desiderio).

Robinson, Edward, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catalogue of the Collection of Casts, New York, 1918 (no. 2273, cast of this plaque is exhibited as by Desiderio).

Schubring, Paul, Die Italienische Plastik des Quattrocento, Berlin-Neubabelsberg, 1919, p. 123, (as Desiderio, says Venturi. Wrong to call false).

Middeldorf, Ulrich, "Die Ausstellung Italienischer Renaissance Sculptur in Detroit," Pantheon, vol. 22, December 1938, p. 316 (mentions relief thoroughly cleaned).

Richardson, E.P., "Italian Sculpture 1250-1500," Parnassus, vol. 10, February 1938, p. 8.

Kennedy, Clarence,"A Very Famous Renaissance Sculpture," Toledo Museum News, March 1939, pp. 1263-1266, repr.

"Desiderio's Famous Relief, St. Cecilia, Goes to Toledo," Art Digest, vol. 13, April 15, 1939, repr.

"Lord Wemyss St. Cecilia by Desiderio Comes to Toledo," American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 43, April 1939, pp. 202-203, repr.

Mouseion, Supplement, May 1939, p. 7, repr. p. 6.

Middeldorf, Ulrich, "Two Florentine Sculptures at Toledo," Art in America, vol. 28, January 1940, pp. 12-30, repr.

Duveen Sculpture in Public Collections of America, New York, 1944, nos. 63, 64, repr. with detail (also mentioned in description of no. 49, Young Christ and St. John, National Gallery, Washington).

Godwin, Molly Ohl, "Capolavori Italiani al 'Toledo Museum of Art,'" Le Vie Del Mondo, vol. 14, 1952, p. 1154, repr. p. 1147.

Godwin, Molly Ohl, "Toledo Museum of Art: Post-war Additions," Connoisseur, vol. 136, no. 548, October 1955, pp. 133-140, repr. p. 137.

Cardellini, Ida, Desiderio da Settignano, ed. di Comunita, (Studi e documenti di storia dell'arte, vol. 3), Milan, 1962, pp. 81, 85, 88, repr. fig. 56.

Young, Col. G. F., The Medici, London, 1924, vol. I, p. 126.

Pope-Hennessy, John, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, London, 1958, p. 302.

Markham, Anne, review of I. Cardellini, Desiderio da Settignano, Art Bulletin, vol. XLVI, June 1964, p. 242.

Classics of Art, The Work of Donatello, New York, 1921, repr. p. 177 (as Donatello, Marble).

Pope-Hennessy, John, "The Forging of Italian Renaissance Sculpture," Apollo, vol. 99, no. 146, April 1974, pp. 248, 264 (no. 31), repr. fig. 20 (as "mid 19th c.").

Kurz, Otto, Fakes, New York (Dover), 1967, p. 137.

Pope-Hennessy, John, "The Forging of Italian Renaissance Sculpture," in The Study and Criticism of Italian Sculpture, Princeton, 1980, p. 234, 267, no. 31, repr. fig. 20 (as "possibly by Odoardo Fantacchiotti, before 1854").

Middeldorf, Ulrich, "Die zwolf Caesaren von Desiderio da Settignano," Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, vol. 23, 1979, p. 310, no. 23.

Middeldorf, Ulrich, "Die zwolf Caesaren von Desiderio da Settignano," in Raccolta di Scritti, that is, collected writings III, 1974-1979, p. 260, no. 23.

Penny, Nicholas, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1992, vol. 1, pp. 30, 31.

Heller, Ena Giurescu, ed., Icons or Portraits? Images of Jesus and Mary from the Collection of Michael Hall, New York, American Bible Society, 2001, p. 262, fig. 1 (col.).

Moskowitz, Anita F., "The Case of Giovanni Bastianini: A Fair and Balanced View," Artibus et Historiae, vol. IIV, no. 50, 2004, pp. 174, 183 (notes 85, 86).

Desiderio da Settignano: Sculpteur de la Renaissance Florentine, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2006, pp. 96, 99, 100-101, 179, fig. 67, p. 95, repr. (col.), [as Sainte Hélène, impératrice, attr. to Desiderio].

Caglioti, Francesco, "Fifteenth-century reliefs of ancient emperors and empresses in Florence: production and collecting" in Collecting Sculpture in Early Modern Europe, ed., by Nichiolas Penny and Eike D. Schmidt, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 2009 (Studies in the history of art, 70), pp. 81, 83, 107, n. 82, fig 25 (col.) [as Saint Helena The Empress, by Desiderio da Settignano].

Exhibition HistoryManchester, City Art Gallery, Treasures of Art, 1857, (lent by the Earl of Wemyss and Elcho).

London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1888, no. 28, p. 42, (as Donatello).

London, The New Gallery, Early Italian Art 1300-1550, 1893-4, no. 1305, p. 134 (as Donatello).

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of a Collection of Italian Sculpture and other Plastic Arts of the Renaissance, 1913, no. 42, p. 50, pl.XXV.

Detroit Institute of Arts, Exhibition of Italian Gothic and early Renaissance Sculpture by W. R. Valentiner, 1938, no. 37, repr.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, loan in conjunction with colloquy and symposium "Desiderio da Settignano," Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, October 2007; colloquy and symposium held in conjunction with exhibition Desiderio da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence. (Not in exhibition or in exhibition catalogue).

Comparative ReferencesSee also Mouseion, Supplement, May 1939, p. 7, repr. p. 6