ITALIAN, POSSIBLY TUSCANY, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY |THREE FEMALE FIGURES ALLEGORICAL OF VIRTUES

This beautifully carved set of personifications of Virtues recalls Tuscan sculpture from the middle decades of the 16th century. Compare, for example, with a number of religious figures attributed to Francesco and Bernardino del Mastro, including the St Lucy and the Magdalene in the duomo of Sant'Andrea in Carrara, published in C. Rapetti, Storie di marmo: Sculture del Rinascimento fra Liguria e Toscana, Milan, 1998, pp. 293-295, nos. 132 and 133. These figures, executed from 1538, exhibit similarly heavy pleated drapery and almond shaped eyes. The attribute of the mirror and the headdresses may nonetheless suggest a date in the second half of the 16th century.