DREI STATUEN AUS DER SAMMLUNG DES MARCHESE VINCENZO GIUSTINIANI IM METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK

Abstract

In 1903, the Metropolitan Museum of Art bought eleven statues and six busts that were once part of marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani’s (1564-1637) collection in Rome. In 1939, baroque restorations were removed from all of the pieces, except for a statue of a youthful Hercules, the figure of a seated Dionysus with a panther, and part of a bearded Hercules. The first part of this paper reconstructs the pieces’ purchase and exhibition history, while the second part examines in closer detail the three statues that have retained their baroque additions. The third section comments on Vincenzo Giustiniani, his Galleria Giustiniana (1636-1637), and the work by French engraver Claude Mellan.