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Gallery Text

Portrait busts like these became popular in 15th-century Italy. They were commissioned in painted terracotta, marble, or bronze by wealthy and aristocratic patrons across Europe. While the identity of the sitters has been the subject of debate, recent technical and scholarly examinations have helped establish the authenticity of the busts. Consequently, they have been reattributed to Florentine sculptor Pietro Torrigiano, who served at the cosmopolitan court of Margaret of Austria (1480–1530).

The busts demonstrate an extraordinary level of craftsmanship. Sheets of clay, sculpted separately, were assembled to form the whole, which was then fired in a kiln (terracotta means “baked earth”). The sculptor used toothed, oval, and round tip modeling tools to texture the surface as well as his fingers to smooth the soft clay. Notice the sitters’ hair and the man’s fur stole, nuanced by stamping a small-toothed tool to create contrasting, reflecting effects; or the sueded parts of their costumes, made by stippling with a trimmed bristle brush. The variety and quality of these details suggest that the busts were possibly not intended to be painted. Yet their verisimilitude competes with contemporary developments in portrait painting, inviting comparison.

[1981.188, 1981.189]

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1981.188
People
Pietro Torrigiano (1472-1528)
Title
Portrait of a Man
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Philippe le Beau
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, bust
Date
c. 1510
Culture
Netherlandish
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/227922

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2540, European Art, 13th–16th century, The Renaissance
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Dimensions
43.6 x 54.6 x 37.8 cm (17 3/16 x 21 1/2 x 14 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Joan d'Huyvetter, Ghent (1770-1833); to his estate at his death,1833, sold; at auction 1851. Eugène Piot, 1851. Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913), London, England, 1862. Louis Charles Timbal (1821-1880), Paris, France. Gustave Dreyfus (1837-1914), Paris, France, 1871, sold [through his estate's sale, 1914]. Sir Joseph Duveen, 1930. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., New York, NY, 1932, by descent; to David Rockefeller, New York, NY, 1960, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1981.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of David Rockefeller in memory of his mother Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Accession Year
1981
Object Number
1981.188
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Descriptions des Antiquites et objets d'art qui composent le cabinet de feu M. Joan d'Huyvetter a Gand, auct. cat. (Ghent, October 20 1851-October 27 1851), no. 690, p. 71.
  • Sir John Charles Robinson, ed., Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Medieval, Renaissance, and more recent periods, exh. cat., G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode (London, England, 1863), no. 30
  • Henry Hymans, "Un Buste inédit de Charles Quint", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (December 1888), vol. 38, pp. 495-500, note, p. 498
  • Alfred Darcel, "Exposition rétrospective de l'art français au Trocadéro", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1889), 3 pér., vol. II, p. 317
  • Paul Eudel, "L'Art à l'Exposition Rétrospective au Trocadéro", L'Exposition de Paris (January 25 1890), no. 73, p. 259
  • Wilhelm von Bode, "Die Bemalte Thonbüste eines Lachenden Kindes im Buckingham Palace und Meister Konrad Meit", Jahrbuch der Königlich Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen (1901), vol. XXII, pp. xiii ff., pp. xiv-xv, repr.
  • Paul Vitry, "La Collection Dreyfus: Sculpture", Les Arts (December 1907), no. 72, p. 32, repr. pp. 30, 31
  • Alfred Maskell, Wood Sculpture (London and New York, 1911), p. 157
  • Elias Tormo, "Obras conocidas y desconocidas de Pietro Torrigiano", Boletin de la Sociedad Espanola de Excursiones (1918), vol. 26, pp. 100-103, p. 102, repr.
  • Jean-Louis Vaudoyer, "La Collection Gustave Dreyfus", L'Amour de l'Art (1925), vol. VI, repr. p. 257
  • Gaston Migeon, Gustave Dreyfus, Vice President de la Société des Amis du Louvre: Notice lue à assembleé generale annuelle de la Société des Amis du Louvre le 5 février 1929, Impr. Générale Lahure (Paris, 1929), p. 6
  • Frank Rutter, "Notes from Abroad: the Dreyfus Collection", The International Studio (September 1930), vol. 97, pp. 60-62, pp. 60, 62, repr.
  • Gustave Dreyfus, Dreyfus Collection: Certain of the Sculptures from the Collection of M. Gustave Dreyfus, Paris (Florence, Italy, privately printed, 1930), pls. LIV, LVI; details, plates LV, LVII
  • August L. Mayer and Otto von Falke, "Die Sammlung Gustave Dreyfus", Pantheon (March 1931), vol. VII, pp. 11-18, pp. 17-18; detail repr.
  • "Two of Dreyfus Treasures Go To J. D. Rockefeller, Jr.", Art News (February 20, 1932), vol. 30, p. 5
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 144, p. 127, repr.
  • Ralph Lieberman, "The Art-Historical Photograph as Fiction: The Pretense of Objectivity", Fictions of Art History, ed. Mark Ledbury (2013), p. 134, repr. p. 135 as figs. 11a and 11b
  • Authorship Rediscovered: New Evidence about Harvard’s Pair of Renaissance Terracotta Busts, website, February 23, 2021, https://harvardartmuseums.org/article/authorship-rediscovered-new-evidence-about-harvard-s-pair-of-renaissance-terracotta-busts [accessed 2-14-25]
  • Felipe Pereda, The Man Who Broke Michelangelo's Nose, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA, 2024), pp. 126, 127, 130, 131, fig. 59

Exhibition History

  • Special Exhibition of Works of Art of the Mediaeval, Renaissance and more recent periods, on loan at the South Kensington Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 06/01/1862 - 06/30/1862
  • Acquisition in Context: The Adoration Triptych by the Master of 1518, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/28/1991 - 01/19/1992
  • Northern European Art from 1450 to 1550, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/13/1994 - 02/05/1995
  • 32Q: 2440 Medieval, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/12/2017
  • 32Q: 2540 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/02/2023 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu