Northern Italian, late 17th/ early 18th century

Professor Michael Jaffé CBE (1923-1997), Cambridge, United Kingdom;
thence by family descent;
on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom (1976-2016);
Sotheby's London, 5 July 2016, lot 112

New York, Carlton Hobbs LLC, Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, Important European Terracottas, 2018

C. Avery, (entry in) Important European Terracottas, exh. cat. Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, London, 2018, pp. 78-81, no. 15

The trophy of arms surrounding the warrior indicate an origin of this terracotta among the European conflict with the Ottoman Empire, which had reached the gates of Vienna in 1683. Its patination suggest that the terracotta may have been a model for a larger bronze monument to a famed military commander. One such monument is Filippo Parodi's three-quarter length bronze bust set upon a marble trophy of Ottoman weaponry dedicated to the memory of Francesco Morosini (1619-1694), which was erected in the Ducal Palace in Venice.