A disc depicting a mans profile in a tall fur hat.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

A clay-colored disc with several concentric borders at the center of which there is the detailed and realistic profile of a man. He is middle aged and slightly heavyset. He wears a narrow scarf tied at his throat and a buttoned garment with an unbuttoned jacket over it. He has short hair under a hat which is made of a wide cuff of fur around a domed center of the cap. His face is blank and his eyes lack pupils. Along the inside of the border on either side of his face reads “B. FRANKLIN – AMERICAN”.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1938.33
People
Giovanni Battista Nini, Italian (Urbino, Italy 1717 - 1786 Chaumont sur Loire, France)
Title
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
relief, sculpture
Date
1777
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230303

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2340, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Silver Cabinet: Art and Ritual, 1600–1850
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Technique
Relief
Dimensions
12 × 2.3 cm (4 3/4 × 7/8 in.)
framed: 18.8 cm (7 3/8 in.)
204.8 g
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: impressed on truncation: NINI / F 1777
  • inscription: l.r., cast: 1777
  • inscription: around image, cast: B · FRANKLIN · AMERICAIN
  • inscription: verso, blue paint, handwritten: 5

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1938.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886
Accession Year
1938
Object Number
1938.33
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
Franklin in profile left, with fur hat. Verso is impressed with fleur-de-lys stamp. On exergue is stamped a crowned crest with hand and lightning bolt. Perforated at upper margin for hanging wire.

Publication History

  • Louise Todd Ambler, Benjamin Franklin: A Perspective, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1975), p. 79, no. 40, ill.
  • Bernard Bailyn, Realism and Idealism in American Diplomacy: The Origins, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton University (Princeton NJ, 1994), fig. 7
  • Bernard Bailyn, To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (New York, NY, 2003), fig. 47
  • Richard Margolis, Benjamin Franklin in Terra Cotta, Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers (Ohio, 2015), pp. 88-93 (Type 18)
  • Richard Margolis, Benjamin Franklin in Terra Cotta: Portrait Medallions by Jean-Baptiste Nini at the Chateau of Chaumont, Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers (Gahanna, Ohio, 2015), pp.88, 154

Exhibition History

  • Benjamin Franklin: A Perspective, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/17/1975 - 09/22/1975
  • Eighteenth Century European Ceramics, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/02/2005 - 06/09/2008
  • 32Q: 2340 Cabinet Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/25/2019 - 06/02/2025

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu