A North Italian terracotta bust of a man, late 15th/early 16th century

The highly expressive face, deeply scored wrinkles and modelled facial features recall the work of Donatello and Tuscan sculpture of the Quattrocento.  Compare the vigorously modelled face and neck and the suggestion of hair on the terracotta bust of Niccolò da Uzzano by Donatello in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.  See Pope-Hennessy, Donatello Sculptor, New York, 1993, p. 141, figs. 127 and 128.

This lot is sold with a Thermoluminescence Analysis Report from Oxford Authentication Ltd. indicating that sample N106Z59A was last fired between 400 and 700 years ago.