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A silver disc in which a woman in elaborate clothes is depicted in profile.

A silver disc bordered with alternating ridges and lines of bumps. A woman is shown from the waist up, her torso faces us and her head is turned away so that her face is in profile. Her hair is tied up in rows of curls which is loose at her temples, the top of her head, and at her neck. She wears a ruffled choker around her neck and a ruffled dress with low wide neckline. There is fabric draped across her, from her shoulder to the elbow of her other arm, crossing over the front of her dress.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1938.42
People
Giovanni Battista Nini, Italian (Urbino, Italy 1717 - 1786 Chaumont sur Loire, France)
Title
Portrait of a Woman
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Madame de Flesselles
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
relief, sculpture
Date
1764
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230693

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
15.9 × 3 cm (6 1/4 × 1 3/16 in.)
framed: 21.5 cm (8 7/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: impressed on truncation: I. B. NINI F. 1764
  • label: verso, black ink, handwritten, French: Mad da [Hessellin?] [sic?] / née Gravier de / libri / intendante de / Moulins / No 25, Catalogue / Villers
  • inscription: verso, blue paint, handwritten: 9
  • inscription: verso, black ink, handwritten, French: [almost illegible:] Abbaye des Benedectines de St.-Calais (Sarthe)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville Lindall 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
1938.42
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Descriptions

Description
A woman in left profile. A detail of the pattern of her lace neckline has been impressed with Nini's name in the exergue. Perforated at upper margin for hanging wire.

Exhibition History

  • 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 - 03/01/2025

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