This handsome and commanding bust represents a young man in Roman military armour. Two shoulder straps are secured to his cuirass by medallions with profile heads of helmeted Roman soldiers. The straps are decorated with a sinuous pattern and the scales of his cuirass are indicated on both shoulders. The young Roman’s deeply drilled pupils and open mouth give him an expression of surprise, as if he has been startled.

His identity is not immediately obvious, but his youthful good-looks and especially the voluminous curls on his forehead, with an intricately carved hairline are clearly indebted to Donatello’s St George, carved around 1416, now displayed in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. This feature is so particular that it seems clear that the sculptor of the present bust is a Florentine artist quoting one of the masterpieces of the early Renaissance that was ever present on the facade of Orsanmichele in the heart of Florence.

The bust may also represent St George, but his animated expression might equally be consistent with depictions of a number of Roman christian soldiers, most obviously St Sebastian, but possibly a less well known military martyr. This kind of bust is consistent with the Florentine tradition of displaying busts in the home that provided instruction on virtuous conduct. Such is the case with the trend for collecting busts of the infant Christ or St John the Baptist which the Dominican, the Blessed Giovanni Dominici (c. 1355-1419) taught should be used as pious role models.

This elegant sculpture has been attributed on the basis of stylistic affinities with the early 16th century Tuscan sculptor Andrea di Piero Ferrucci. Foremost amongst these comparisons is the remarkable marble statue of St Andrew on the Duomo in Florence (fig. 1), carved almost a century after Donatello’s St George.

The physiognomy of St Andrew and the present bust are strikingly similar, notably in the forehead, mouth and fixed stare. The crisply carved thick locks of hair are also analogous. Further comparison can be made with the very fine Bust of Julius Caesar in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 14.40.676); note especially the treatment of the eyes with deeply carved pupils.

RELATED LITERATURE
J. Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1964, pp. 179-82;
R. Naldi, Andrea Ferrucci: Marmi gentili tra Toscana e Napoli, Electa 2002;
G. Pratesi, Repertorio della Scultura Fiorentina del Cinquecento, III, Torino 2003.