Word: pisanello
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...learns to expect from official sculptors) as of an extreme responsiveness and delicacy, an adoring pursuit of the nuance, which coexists with his fondness for declamation. He had no embarrassment, of course, in quoting his quattrocento idols: that was the natural use of a heritage. He took from Pisanello, Laurana, Cellini and Desiderio da Settignano; the pose of Farragut is Donatello's St. George without a shield. Still, any academic hack can redo a prototype; Saint-Gaudens' peculiar gift was to shadow these massive and well-known shapes with the tiny subliminal events of a dreaming hand...
...portraits in this show follow a clear and fairly stereotyped pattern of development. The pattern emerges from Roman low-relief sculpture and contemporary portrait medallions, some of which are also on view. In early likenesses by Pisanello, Pollaiuolo and Uccello, the subject is seen in strict profile. This gives her remoteness: she doesn't look back at you or acknowledge your gaze in any way. She is on display in all her finery, in scarlet velvet or cloth of gold, in brocade and pearls--an icon of marital success and faithfulness. (The catalog has an excellent essay by Roberta Landini...