An Italian terracotta bust of a Bishop Saint, by Agnolo di Polo (1470-1528), late 15th century

Museo di Pittura Murale, Prato, Filippino Lippi, un bellissimo ingegno: origini ed eredità nel territorio di Prato, May-July 2004

Maria Pia Mannini, Filippino Lippi, un bellissimo ingegno: origini ed eredità nel territorio di Prato, Prato, 2004, cat. no. 28

Surface abrasions, chipping, and small losses throughout. Remainders of early polychromy and gilding. Paint refreshed. Restorations throughout including front point of mitre and back of mitre (upper half of back of mitre lacking). Restorations to lappets, part of his proper right hand and arm, some areas of shoulders and chest including lower right side on cloak and part of arm. Repaired crack to body between his hands and above the book. Repaired cracks to head and neck. Losses around lower edge and losses to lower left of cloak. Some fill and metal support on the reverse. Stable. Restorations well done.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This large, beautifully modeled bust of a Bishop Saint by the Florentine sculptor Agnolo di Polo is one of the few surviving works by the artist and probably represents Saint Zenobius, first Bishop of Florence.  Like his more famous contemporaries Leonardo and Perugino, Agnolo was a student of the great Andrea del Verrochio; Giorgio Vasari notes that "he was a skillful worker in clay who filled the city with his productions." (Vasari 1965, p. 238).  From a family of artistans, Agnolo produced figures and busts for churches in Tuscany and the surrounding region.  He would often enlist a painter to complete the polychromy on a sculpture or relief, which were rarely left unpainted.  Like Agostino de Fondulis of Milan, Agnolo seems only to have worked only on clay, and therefore his surviving works are extremely rare.

The treatment of the facial features of this stately bust compares well with the known polychromed terracotta works by Agnolo.  His figures for the Capella Spadari in SS. Annunziata, Arezzo, completed shorly before his death in 1528, are his finest surviving works (Boucher 2002, p. 21, fig. 21).  The figure of Saint Roch from that ensemble bears the same vigorous modeling, flowing hair and beard, and doleful, heavy-lidded expression seen in the present bust.  A similar expression is also seen in his bust of Christ in the Museo Civico, Pistoia of 1495, which is very close in pose and costume to the present bust.  Agnolo's distinctive and dramatic style of modeling faces and drapery can be seen in a pair of recently attributed painted figures of Mary Magdalene and Saint John the Evangelist in the Chiesa dello Spirito Santo in Pistoia, and in a comparable bust of Saint John the Baptist in the Detroit Institute of Arts (Darr 2002, no. 62).  Other attributed works are found in the church of Santa Marina Bambina at Terranuova Bracciolini near Arezzo, and the convent of Santa Caterina at Borgo San Lorenzo.

RELATED LITERATURE

Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, trans. and reprinted London, 1965
Lorenzo Lorenzi, Agnolo di Polo: scultura in terracotta dipinta nella Firenze di fine Quattrocento, Ferrara, 1998
Alan Darr, Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 2002
Bruce Boucher, Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, New Haven, 2002