Exhibitions

+zoom	Frank Holl (British, 1845–1888) Portrait of Pierpont Morgan, 1888 Oil on canvas 49 3/16 x 39 5/16 inches (1248 x 997 mm) Framed: 50 1/8 x 40 1/8 inches (1273 x 1019 mm) Commissioned by Pierpont Morgan, 1888; AZ065 Already one of the world's most prominent bankers, Pierpont Morgan was fifty-one years old when he sat for this portrait. Holl downplayed Morgan's skin condition, called rhinophyma, which reddened and inflamed his nose. The banker was so fond of the work he gave photographs of it to friends.

+zoom	Leone Leoni (Italian, 1509–1590) or Annibale Fontana (Italian, 1540–1587) Bust of Alfonso d'Avalos (1502–1546), ca. 1560–80 Bronze Base: 8 x 10 inches (203 x 254 mm) Bust: 27 1/2 x 24 1/4 inches (699 x 615 mm) Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1907; AZ129 Alfonso d'Avalos, the marquis del Vasto, wielded considerable power as the governor of Milan and commander of imperial forces in Italy under the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This portrait bust may be the work of Leoni, who held the post of engraver at the Milan mint, or of the younger sculptor Annibale Fontana, based on a funerary mask of d'Avalos molded by Leoni in 1546.

+zoom	Hans Memling (Flemish, 1433/40–1494) Portrait of a Man with a Pink, ca. 1475 Tempera on panel 10 3/4 x 15 inches (273 x 381 mm) Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1907; AZ073 This is one of the finest paintings in the Morgan collection. The sitter may have been a member of the Italian merchant colony in Bruges, where Memling was the leading painter. The pink, or carnation, in the young man's hand is likely a symbol of betrothal, suggesting that the painting may be one of a pair of wedding portraits.

+zoom	Hans Memling (1430/40–1494) Old Woman at Prayer with St. Anne (left); Young Man at Prayer with St. William of Maleval (right) Flanders, ca. 1470 Tempera on panel Each panel: 32 7/8 x 10 5/8 in. (835 x 270 mm); framed: 36 5/8 x 14 3/8 in. (930 x 365 mm) The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1907; AZ012.1-2 See CORSAIR catalog record for this item ť Among Memling's finest early works in this country, these two panels once formed the wings of a triptych. They depict relatives, along with their patron saints, of Jan Crabbe, the fifteenth-century abbot who commissioned the altarpiece. At left, St. Anne stands behind an older, kneeling woman, who is probably Crabbe's mother, Anna. At right, St. William of Maleval appears in armor behind a young man, probably the abbot's brother or nephew.

+zoom	Plate with Profile Bust of a Woman Italy (Deruta), 1519 Majolica, with beige, copper, gold, and blue glazes Diameter: 9 1/2 inches (240 mm) Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1906; AZ020 Produced in large numbers during the first half of the sixteenth century, majolica plates and shallow basins with profile busts of women were probably presented as betrothal or wedding gifts. This plate, dated 1519 on the back, is related to basins produced in Deruta, one of the major Italian centers of majolica production during the Renaissance.

+zoom	Antonio Rossellino (Italian, Settignano 1427/28–1479 Florence) Madonna and Child with Cherubim, ca. 1460-75 Marble bas-relief Unframed: 31 1/2 x 22 1/8 inches (800 x 562 mm) Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1913; AZ069 Rossellino executed this work in "flattened relief," a technique he adopted as his specialty. The composition suggests that he looked at paintings as well as three-dimensional sculpture in creating a play of light and shade in the subtly carved surface of the relief.

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