Provenance

Henry Goldman

American, 1857 - 1937

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A woman sits on a narrow plinth representing the ground and holds a baby, who is wrapped in her robe, in this freestanding white marble sculpture. In this photograph, the woman’s body faces us, and her head tilts slightly to our left. Her voluminous mantle drapes over her head and falls in deep folds and creases around her shoulders, arms, the child’s lower body, and her own lap and legs. The front of the mantle lies open exposing the curved neckline of her robe and the upper body of the child. The woman’s hands curve loosely encircle the child’s hip and lower legs. He rests his head and one hand against her chest with his face also turned to us. His legs stretch across her lap and his little feet stick out from the edge of her mantle. The pair sit on a narrow rectangular plinth.
Jacopo della Quercia, Madonna of Humility, c. 1400, marble with traces of gilding, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1960.5.2

Madonna of Humility

Jacopo della Quercia · c. 1400 · marble with traces of gilding ·  Accession ID  1960.5.2

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man wears furs and fine fabrics in this vertical portrait painting. He is angled to our left and looks down in that direction with brown eyes under slender brows. His shoulder-length, dark brown hair is topped by a soft black cap adorned with a gold medallion-like badge over the temple closer to us. The man has a long, pointed nose, his pale pink lips are closed, and his jawline is darkened by a five-o-clock shadow. He wears a white shirt with a wide, square neckline under a vest or low-cut doublet striped with black and gold. A voluminous black overcoat is lined with tawny-brown fur and edged with gold, L-shaped bands over the shoulders. He holds the sides of the coat together low on his chest with his right hand, to our left. The sleeve looks like black velvet over a translucent white cuff, and the man wears a gold ring with a gray gem on that index finger. A brown band across the bottom of the picture could be a narrow ledge in front of the man or a board or slab oriented vertically, like a frame. A small piece of white, creased paper appears to be affixed to the front of the board with red wax, a glimpse of which is shown along the top edge. A scarlet-red curtain hangs behind the man across the left two-thirds of the composition. A rectangle on the dark wall to our right could be a window opening or a painting. There we find a hilly landscape with trees, buildings, and water. Close to us in that distant view, a man wearing robes and on horseback rides away from a man carrying a lance and running after the horse.
Bartolomeo Veneto, Portrait of a Gentleman, c. 1520, oil on panel transferred to canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.257

Portrait of a Gentleman

Bartolomeo Veneto · c. 1520 · oil on panel transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.257

Shown from the chest up behind a stone ledge, a light-skinned man with a mustache, beard, and shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a black garment with voluminous sleeves, tilts his head back to look at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left but he tips his head back to look past his rounded nose at us with dark eyes from under arched brows. His right fist, on our left, rests on a closed book bound in moss green, which is fastened with a metal clasp. The book rests on the ivory-white stone ledge, which steps up to a higher level to our right. He clenches a wad of nickel-gray cloth in the hand on the book, and his other arm rests by his side, extending out of view behind the ledge. His black, long-sleeved jacket has full sleeves and is open at the neck over a collarless white shirt. A squared opening is cut into the elephant-gray stone wall behind him to our left. A cityscape beneath a pale blue sky is visible in the distance out the window. The Roman characters “VVO” appear to be carved into the front face of the ledge, at the bottom edge of the canvas.
Cariani, Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman, c. 1510/1515, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.258

Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman

Cariani · c. 1510/1515 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.258

A winged angel with arms crossed kneels across from a young woman sitting and holding a book, both under an archway in a paneled room in this vertical painting. They both have pale, yellow-toned skin, blond hair, and flat, gold halos. They also have golden brown eyes, long, straight noses, smooth cheeks, and their pale, pink lips are closed. To our right, the woman sits in a throne-like chair with her body facing our left. Her head tilts down, and she looks toward the angel under lowered lids. Her hair is pulled back under the neck of the lapis-blue cloak she wears over a crimson-red dress. The dress and cloak are trimmed with gold, and a there is a gold starburst on the cloak over her left shoulder, closer to us. She holds her other hand up near that shoulder with her fingertips brushing her chest. With her other hand, she holds open the pages of a small book in her lap, so her fingers overlap some of the words. The entire Latin inscription would read, “virgo concipiet et pariet filium et vocabitur nomen eius emmanuel butirum et mel come dit ut fiat reprobare.” A slender, bone-white column separates her from the angel across from her, along the left edge of the painting. The angel has curly, shoulder-length hair and wears a robe with a gold, floral pattern against a burgundy-red background. Long, golden wings emerge from the shoulder blades and extend off the side of the composition. An open archway just beyond the angel is filled with streaks of flax yellow and burnt orange, possibly representing flames. Some of the walls in the room around the pair are pale olive green and other areas are darker spruce green. There are bands of coral-pink molding and inset panels of patterned mosaics. The flat ceiling of the space immediately over the pair is decorated with checkerboard panels in navy blue, hunter green, brown, and brick red. Gold lines create a ray coming from the ceiling toward the woman. At the back of the space, beyond the column separating the woman and angel, the room extends into an alcove with an arched hallway painted with gold stars against a midnight-blue background. Double doors open at the back of the alcove onto a room with a pale-yellow curtain with a mesh-like trim. We see the pair as if through a stone archway that lines the top and sides of the composition. The upper corners are filled with leafy decorations, as if carved into the stone.
Masolino da Panicale, The Annunciation, c. 1423/1424, tempera (and possibly oil glazes) on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.16

The Annunciation

Masolino da Panicale · c. 1423/1424 · tempera (and possibly oil glazes) on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.16

Shown from the hips up, a nude woman stands between a table in front of her and a clothed man behind her, against a deep landscape in this vertical painting. The man rests one hand on her shoulder and holds up a mirror with the other. The woman’s pale skin has a pronounced golden glow. Her body faces us and she looks to our left, holding her waist-length, curly, strawberry-blond hair with her right hand by her face. Her hair on the other side is tied back with a sage-green band behind her ear. She wears a sheer white sash wrapped around her back and upper arms. A muted rose-pink, velvet sash loops over her left forearm, to our left. That hand rests on a round, squat glass bottle that sits on a leaf-green table, with her index finger covering the opening of the bottle. She wears a gold ring with a small dark stone on her left ring finger, and another gold ring rests on the table. The back corner of the table covers her genitals in the lower right corner of the painting. Behind her and to our left, a man with an olive-toned complexion and short curly brown hair, moustache, and long beard looks down his long nose at the woman as he rests his left hand, to our right, on her shoulder. He has dark eyebrows, flushed cheeks, and his pink lips are closed. He wears a cranberry-red coat embroidered along the edges with gold. White ruffles encircle his neck and the cuff we can see. Almost lost in shadow, the hilt of his sword peeks around his hip. With his right hand, to our left, he holds up a dark rectangular object in a wood-colored frame. The reflections of his fingertips in the glass indicate that this is a mirror, but the surface is otherwise black. A dense, forest-green tree grows in the landscape behind the woman. The view over the man’s shoulder, to our left, has sea-green hills beneath a watery blue sky with cream-white clouds.
Italian 15th/16th Century, Allegory of Love, c. 1520/1540, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.259

Allegory of Love

Italian 15th/16th Century · c. 1520/1540 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.259

A young woman, holding a baby in her lap, sits on a wide bench draped with a patterned midnight-blue fabric in this vertical panel painting. The panel is rectangular at the bottom and becomes a pointed arch at the top. The woman and baby both have pale skin tinged with peach, and halos inscribed on a gleaming gold background. The woman’s body is angled to our right and she tilts her head in that direction to look down at the child. She has a slender, oval face, with hazel-brown eyes under thin brows, a long nose, and coral-pink lips. A sliver of blond hair peeks out from the honey-gold cowl that covers her head, neck, and shoulders. The cowl is layered over her gold-trimmed, burgundy-red robe, which has an opening through which her right arm, closer to us, reaches to support to the child. That arm is covered by a long, gold sleeve patterned with scalloped brick-red and marine-blue designs and smoke-gray flowers. The word “MATER” is inscribed on her neckline and “AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DOM TECV BEN” along the bottom hem. On the woman’s lap, the child is angled to our left with the woman’s slender hands wrapped around his torso. His mouth is slightly open as he tilts his head up to look at her. His right hand, on our left, reaches up to gesture at her neckline. He has wavy, blond hair and hazel eyes under faint brows, a small nose, and peach-colored lips set in a round face. He wears an ankle-length, cobalt-blue tunic trimmed with bright gold. The fabric on the bench is covered with cobalt-blue and crimson-red flowers, and pools around the seat and across the floor.
Gentile da Fabriano, Madonna and Child Enthroned, c. 1420, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.255

Madonna and Child Enthroned

Gentile da Fabriano · c. 1420 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.255

Nine people are gathered in a landscape around the gaunt body of a young man being carried on a cloth in the lower half of this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin tinged with yellow, and all but one have shiny gold halos. The space is framed to the right by a stone-gray structure with a squared opening and, to the left, with a brown, rocky outcropping. Tall cypress trees and sage-green vegetation grow up and over the structure to our right. The bearded young man, Jesus, is laid out horizontally with his feet to our left, on a flax-yellow cloth carried by two elderly men. He is nude except for a white cloth across his hips, and there are tiny red slashes on the hand and foot we can see, and over his right ribs, farther from us. Just beyond the body, a woman draped in a marine-blue robe bends to gaze at Jesus’s face while being supported by two other women. A young, cleanshaven man in a coral-pink robe over a steel-gray garment stands by them, on our left, with his head lowered and hands clasped. On our side of the body are two women with their backs to us. The woman on the left kneels at Jesus’s corpse with her head bent as she wipes his feet. The woman on the right sits on the ground with her robe drawn over her head, and she covers her face with her hands. On the ground between them, a hammer, the ring of thorns with three arrows extending from it, and a nail puller lie on an white cloth. The only person without a halo is a bearded man standing to our right, closest to the opening in the structure. He wears a red robe and cap draped with a white cowl. The ground beneath the group is carpeted with pine-green grass, and a sprinkling of white dots suggests small flowers. A palm tree stands just outside a tall, narrow wooden gate beyond the group. The gate opens onto a landscape with a river winding to meet a town and hazy mountains in the distance. A tall, steep, laurel-green hill to our left is topped with three wooden crosses, and bodies hang from the crosses to either side. A few bands of clouds float across the sky, which deepens from ivory white at the horizon to azure blue along the top edge.
Fra Angelico, The Entombment of Christ, c. 1450, tempera on poplar panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.260

The Entombment of Christ

Fra Angelico · c. 1450 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.260

This sculpture depicts a woman holding a small child. The woman has pale skin and reddish-blonde hair, and she is wearing a red gown with a blue cloak draped over her. A while veil is tied around her forehead and flows down over her hair. She holds the child in her arms, pressing it closely to her chest. The child also has pale skin and short, blond hair, and they are mostly nude, although the woman is holding a small tan cloth against their upper thighs. The woman stands barefoot on a small, round base.
Donatello, Madonna and Child, c.1420/1425, painted and gilded terracotta, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.112

Madonna and Child

Donatello · c.1420/1425 · painted and gilded terracotta ·  Accession ID  1937.1.112

The sculpture depicts a man wearing ornate ecclesiastical attire. He is shown with his right hand bent and two fingers extended upward, while his left hand clutches what appears to be a folded cloth. He is wearing draping robes with a high collar, and on his head is a tall hat embellished with swirling patterns. He has a long nose, high cheekbones, and slightly downturned lips. The sculpture is a pale, off-white color with some light brown areas.
Tilman Riemenschneider, A Bishop Saint (Burchard of Würzburg?), c. 1515/1520, linden wood with traces of polychromy, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.1.1

A Bishop Saint (Burchard of Würzburg?)

Tilman Riemenschneider · c. 1515/1520 · linden wood with traces of polychromy ·  Accession ID  1961.1.1

Two panels on a gilded, carved, wooden frame are swung open like shutters to show a bearded, gray-haired man wearing robes standing in each wing, on either side of panel with a pointed, arched top showing a woman holding a baby. In a three-lobed shape in the apex above the woman and child, a nude man crosses his arms over his chest. All the people have pale, ivory-colored skin. Gold halos encircle each person’s head and the background of all three panels is bright gold. The woman in the center panel is shown from the hips up with her body facing us. The deep blue mantle that drapes over her shoulders and her dusty rose-pink dress beneath are trimmed in gold. A sheer veil covers her wavy blond hair and a red, triangular form sits above her forehead like a diadem. She looks to our right with dark, almond-shaped eyes. She has a straight nose, her coral-pink lips are closed, and her smooth cheeks are lightly flushed with pale pink. She holds the child in the crook of her left arm, on our right, and rests her other hand in the baby’s lap. He has short, curly blond hair and looks directly at the woman. He reaches his right arm, farther from us, around his mother’s neck and hooks his other hand in the neckline of her dress. He wears a sheer shirt edged in gold, and the fabric draped around his hips is patterned with tangerine-orange and gold, with lapis-blue clover designs. He has rounded cheeks and a pudgy tummy, but his facial features and arms are scaled more like an adult. Twisted columns separate this central panel from the shutter-like panels to each side. A single person stands in each wing, filling most of the space, and both are angled and look towards the central panel. Both men have darker, olive-toned complexions, wear long robes trimmed in gold, and stand on floors patterned with orange, gold, and sparsely spaced royal blue diamond-shapes. The man to our left has short, steel-gray hair and a trimmed beard. Wrinkles line his forehead, and his brow is furrowed. He wears a topaz-blue, long sleeved garment under a honey-orange robe, the underside of which is ruby-red where it turns back over his wrists and shoulder. He holds a book with a dark cover up in his left hand, farther from us, and a large skeleton key in his other hand. In the right panel, a balding man has a fringe of long, gray hair and a flowing, full beard. His forehead is also creased with wrinkles and his brow is furrowed. The dark, olive-green lining of his rose-pink robe shows where it folds back at his neck, over his wrists, and down the front. His robe covers a topaz-blue garment as well. He holds a book, also with a dark cover, by his side with his left hand, closer to us, and holds up a feather quill with his opposite hand. The inner edges of each of the central panel and both wings are incised with bands of decorative floral and geometric designs punched into the gold backgrounds. In the pointed peak above the central panel, the nude man is shown from the waist up in a three-lobed, clover shape that would be visible even if the wings were closed. The man’s body faces us but his haloed head tips to his right, our left. He has a beard and long brown hair, and a hole dripping blood pierces the back of his left hand, visible on our right. The base of the tryptic is inscribed with gold letters in a dark field: “AVE GRATIA PLENA DO.”
Nardo di Cione, Madonna and Child, with the Man of Sorrows [middle panel], c. 1360, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.261.b

Madonna and Child, with the Man of Sorrows [middle panel]

Nardo di Cione · c. 1360 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1939.1.261.b

Bibliography

1922

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. The Henry Goldman Collection. New York (privately printed), 1922.

1937

  • "Henry Goldman, 79, Banker, Dies Here." The New York Times (5 April 1937): 19, col. I.

  • "The Death of Henry Goldman." The Art News 35 (17 April 1937): 19.