Unusual Painted Terracotta Sculpture of a Tailor
£4,500
An utterly charming painted terracotta sculpture of a tailor. Painted in subtle shades and shown seated cross-legged and. shoeless on a stool, his shoes below
Height 58.5 cm (23 inches)
Width 20 cm (8 inches)
Depth 18 cm (7 inches)
perhaps Italian, late 18th/early 19th century
The tradition of painted terracotta portrait busts in Italy stretches back to Gothic and Renaissance times. Famous examples are the bust by Pietro Torrigiani of Henry VII and another of his son, Henry VIII as a child when still Duke of York. There is another example in the Victoria & Albert Museum of Cardinal Giovanni di Medici attributed to Antonio de Benintendi – he is shown wearing a biretta, so it must date from just prior to 1513, when he became Pope Leo X.