Attributed to Fabrizio Arrigucci

The attribution of this handsome terracotta Bust of a Young Man to the Roman sculptor Fabrizio Arrigucci is based on stylistic comparisons with two signed terracotta busts by the sculptor, both dated to 1680. The Bust of Giovan Battista de Bianchi, in the Museo Barberini-Corsini, Rome, is signed Jo. Baptae De Blanchis Veronensis Architecti / A Fabritio Ariguci Romano / Ficta effigies / anno MDCXXX. Here, the treatment of the buttonholes and the sitter’s intensity of expression compare well with the present bust. The second signed bust represents Francesco Tosetti. Displayed in the Palazzo Braschi, Rome, the Tosetti bust is signed: Fabritio Arigucci Romano Fecit / 1680. This bust has more elaborate modelling in the hair which is directly comparable to handling of the hair of this Bust of a Young Man. All three busts have a restrained formality.

Other unsigned terracotta portraits attributed to Arrigucci include a Bust of Guercino in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna and a Bust of a Man in the V&A Museum, London (inv. no. 7620-1861), catalogued as Florentine, first half of the 17th century, but Pope-Hennessy writes that it is not necessarily so, and cites the Bust of Giovan Battista de Bianchi as comparison.

Arrigucci was active in Emilia and Verona, but later based himself in Rome. It has been supposed that his origins are in fact in the north as some documents refer to him as ‘Fiamengo’ (Riccomini, op. cit.)

RELATED LITERATURE

J. Pope–Hennessy and R. Lightbown, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1964, vol. 2, p.576, cat. 610, vol. 3, p. 370, fig. 611; E. Riccomini, Ordine e vaghezza: la scultura in Emilia nell’eta barocca, Bologna, 1972, pp. 80-81; O. Ferrari and S. Papaldo, Le Sculture del Seicentor a Roma, Rome, 1999, pp. 496 and 511