Since Saint-Gaudens studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, 1867-1870, I'm going to guess that it was Dupre. Chris
Saint-Gaudens and Dupre even have the same haircuts, although Pisanello did medallic portraits while Dupre was a painter.
Pisanello died in 1455. Augustus Saint-Gaudens lived from 1848-1907. Teddy Roosevelt chose him to design the $20 Double Eagle, the $10 Gold Indian Head Eagle and a pattern for the one cent which was never produced. It is my understanding that Donatello (not the teenage mutant ninja turtle, the other one) was a great source of inspiration for Saint-Gaudens.
This link shows the 3 St-G coins. http://www.usacoinbook.com/encyclopedia/coin-designers/augustus-saint-gaudens/ The one cent has the face of the $10 Indian but with hair in a bun.
ANSWER: Pisanello From the ANA's "Introduction to Numismatics" course book, chapter by Cory Gillilland: "Augustus Saint-Gaudens' work, modeled after the prototype medals created by Pisanello in the 15th century, had an impact as vital as that derived from the French academies..." Some of you voted Dupre because they lived at the same time, but the question asked the person whose work he modeled. It did not ask if he trained directly under this person, so the fact Pisanello was dead long before Saint-Gaudens was born is irrelevant. Illustration: Being a student of history, and a professional military officer, I have largely based my leadership style on "Stonewall" Jackson. I am neither a southerner, nor were my ancestors Confederates (in fact, in my genealogical research I have found three who fought for the Union and no Confederates), and I did not live in the same time as Jackson. The fact Jackson died 150 years before I was born is irrelevant, because I study his work, philosophies, and leadership style just like Saint-Gardens studied Pisanello. Thus, one could say I model my work after Jackson. Someone voted Roosevelt. Roosevelt wasn't even an artist. Sure, he commissioned Saint-Gaudens to make the double eagle gold piece, but Saint-Gaudens did not "model" his work after Roosevelt's. Roosevelt had no work to model! Seriously, it wasn't a trick question. The poll I posted is actually a word-for-word copy of the test question the ANA has in their correspondence course.
In response to the above quote, I posted the death date as a point of clarification, that St-G and Pisanello weren't contemporaries. BTW I voted Pisanello
