Provenance

Dr. Eduard Simon

German, 1864 - 1929

Explore selected works

The sculpture depicts a woman holding a child. The woman is seen from the waist up, wearing a gold robe with black details. Both the woman and child have pale skin with rosy cheeks, golden hair, and red lips in neutral expressions. The child is a young toddler, portrayed naked, with his arms on the woman's shoulders and his feet among the folds of her robe. The sculpture has a rectangular base in red and gold.
Florentine 15th Century, Madonna and Child, c. 1425, painted and gilded terracotta with wood backing, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.93

Madonna and Child

Florentine 15th Century · c. 1425 · painted and gilded terracotta with wood backing ·  Accession ID  1943.4.93

Roman 18th/19th Century, Lion, c. 1780/1855, bronze, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.7

Lion

Roman 18th/19th Century · c. 1780/1855 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1957.14.7

Three men with crowns and wearing gold-trimmed robes stand and kneel before a woman sitting on a wooden, box-like seat holding a baby to our right, in front of a rocky cave and landscape, in this horizontal painting. A balding man with a gray beard and hair, Joseph, and two younger people with blond hair stand around the woman, Mary, to our right, while a group of five young men or boys and three horses gather near the left edge. All the people have pale skin. Mary, the baby Jesus, Joseph, and the three men closest to them all have shimmering gold halos. One balding man with a long white beard kneels and kisses the baby’s feet. He wears a gold and crimson-red brocade-like robe over a burgundy-red garment, and he holds a pointed gold crown in his right hand, which rests on the ground. Behind him and to our left, a younger man with curly blond hair and goatee, wearing a wine-red tunic belted with gold and a gold crown on his head, holds his hands in prayer as he kneels down on one knee. The third stands to our left, cleanshaven with long blond hair. He wears a fur-lined, thigh-length scarlet-red robe and a gold crown, and he holds up a gold vessel in one hand. To our right, Mary wears a lapis-blue robe that covers her head and falls to her feet. The baby is covered only by a white cloth across his hips, and he has short blond hair. He touches the kneeling man’s head with one hand. His body is pudgy but his face has more adult-like, delicate features. Joseph stands at the woman’s far shoulder, wearing a butter-yellow robe over a rose-pink garment. His hands are gathered on a walking stick in front of his chest and his brows are furrowed with deep lines. One of the two younger people behind Mary, to our right, holds a lidded gold vessel. The group of five attendants to our left gather around cream-white, gray, or chestnut-brown horses. These blond people wear garments of dark olive-green, coral-red, royal-blue, or rose-pink tunics over black stockings. The rocky, brown cave behind Mary and Jesus, to our right of center, is occupied by a donkey and an ox behind a wooden trough. The landscape beyond is segmented into quilt-like squares of stylized crops. The horizon line comes almost to the top edge of the panel beneath a narrow strip of vivid, cobalt-blue sky. A gold star like a sunburst with rays of light hovers over the woman and child.
Giovanni di Paolo, The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1450, tempera on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.13

The Adoration of the Magi

Giovanni di Paolo · c. 1450 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.13

Bibliography

2005

  • Kuhrau, Sven. Der Kunstsammler im Kaiserreich: Kunst und Repräsentation in der Berliner Privatsammlerkultur. Kiel, 2005:9-19, 28.