FOLLOWER OF DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO (CIRCA 1429-1464), ITALIAN, FLORENCE, SECOND HALF 15TH CENTURY | BUST OF A BOY, POSSIBLY THE INFANT CHRIST

This fine bust reflects the advice of the Blessed Giovanni Dominici to Florentine parents that they display representations of child saints in their homes, to provide their children with pious role models (see Paolozzi Strozzi, op. cit., p. 119). It relates closely to two marble busts by Desiderio da Settignano in the National Gallery of Art, Washington; one from the Samuel H. Kress Collection (inv. no. 1943.4.94), and the other from the Andrew W. Mellon Collection (inv. no. 1937.1.113), which are sometimes thought to represent the Infant Christ. Compare the downcast gaze, plump cheeks and almond-shaped eyes of the Kress bust, and the delicate hairstyle of the Mellon bust, with a prominent strand tucked behind the right ear. Further comparable busts of the Infant Christ and Saint John were sculpted by Desiderio's contemporaries, Antonio Rossellino and Mino da Fiesole (see Paolozzi Strozzi, op. cit., pp. 125-126). The author of the present marble was undoubtedly familiar with the work of these Florentine masters.

RELATED LITERATURE

M. Bormand et al (eds.), Desiderio da Settignano: Sculpteur de la Renaissance Florentine, exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2006, nos. 10 and 11; B. Paolozzi Strozzi and M. Bormand (eds.), The Springtime of the Renaissance: Sculpture and the Arts in Florence 1400-60, exh. cat. Paolozzi Strozzi, Florence and Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2013, pp. 119-129