PORTRAIT of a Tuscan Patrician. Terracotta, Renaissance styl - Lot 118

PORTRAIT of a Tuscan Patrician. Terracotta, Renaissance style. (Restorations). H.62 W.53 D.30. The 19th century was unquestionably the century of historicism. To break away from the neo-classical "grand style" that some in the salons considered boring, sculptors turned to 15th-century Florence. The rediscovery of primitive sculpture led to a reappraisal of Renaissance art. In a century steeped in legends and myths, the romantic mythologizing of the great humanist figures of Lorenzo de' Medici and Michelangelo fascinated. Neo-Renaissance art flourished. This remarkable bust echoes it. Its typology is reminiscent of the famous busts of Florentine notables by Benedetto Da Maiano and Verrochio. These portraits, which adorned the villas of the patricians of the time, were adapted by 19th-century terracottists at the request of wealthy patrons wishing to recreate Medici Florence in their luxurious interiors. The Louvre holds one of these neo-Renaissance busts, from the collection of Baron Jean-Charles Davillier, which is comparable in every way to our work.