This rare bust of a richly attired young woman with a noble demeanor is one of a small group of extant, life-size busts produced in tin-glazed earthenware, the refined opaque white-glazed pottery of the Italian Renaissance (otherwise known as maiolica), a material predominantly reserved for smaller vessels and plates. However, the adept modeling seen here suggests that the original model for the bust was the work of a professional sculptor.

Here, the characteristic colors of Renaissance pottery with a vivid, saturated palette, are used to illustrate the young woman’s sumptuous clothing: an ochre-colored undergarment beneath a dark blue bodice both decorated with designs imitating brilliant gold brocade and cut velvet, and numerous strands of pearls suspending a pendant cross around her neck. Both the cost.mes , with the bodice cut horizontally above her breasts, and the specific textile design with luscious foliage formed of pomegranates, lotuses and palmettes, were the height of fashion in Italy by the 15th century (fig. 1).

Fig. 1 Antonio and Piero del Pallaiuolo, Portrait of a Lady, circa 1460-1465, oil on tempera(?) on panel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (50.135.3)

This young woman was clearly from a prosperous family as indicated by her gold dress. Gold, in this period, would have come from Africa and therefore only would have been accessible to wealthy families.

It is difficult to localize the center of production for the present sculpture as several Tuscan towns, including Faenza and Montelupo, produced comparable works. Close stylistic affinities with this bust can be found in a bust of St John the Baptist- - half the size of this bust of a young woman- - in the Ashmolean Museum (WA1888.CDEF.C408) and the Bust of Christ in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (87.SE.148), the latter of which may be from Faeza. Another bust of a woman, also from the J.P. Morgan collects ion, previously given to Faenza and now cataloged as “Possibly Montelupo, circa 1490-1500”, is in the Museum of Replica Handbags s, Boston (acc. no. 54.146) (fig. 2).

Fig. 2 Italian, Bust of a woman, maiolica, circa 1490-1500, Museum of Replica Handbags s, Boston

Moreover, multiple points of comparison are found in marble busts of the period, including several examples of female busts carved by the sculptor Francesco Laurana (c. 1430- 1502) (fig. 3). The high, arched eyebrows, partially lowered lids, and the truncation of the bust are echoed here as is the opulent dress. Interestingly, in the present bust, the painting of the dress continues on to the plinth-like base, whereas the majority of maiolica busts from the period, including those in Boston and Los Angeles, terminate in an integrally modeled ledge painted in white. Interestingly, there is a large aperture at the crown of the young woman’s head which was intentionally modeled and could have had a metal lid or cover indicating that the bust may have been used in a liturgical context, perhaps as a reliquary.

Fig. 3 Francesco Laurana, Bust of the Princess of Naples, marble, circa 1472, Bode museum, Berlin (partially destroyed in 1945)

The present sculpture was originally in the collects ion of Baron Albert von Oppenheim (1834-1912), the important German art collects or (fig. 4) whose collects ion was sold in Cologne in 1904 (fig. 5) to the French dealer Jacques Seligmann, from whom J.P. Morgan acquired much of the Oppenheim collects ion, including the present sculpture.

Fig. 4 Carl Westenburger, Baron Albert von Oppenheim, 1910
Fig. 5 Catalog of Oppenheim collects ion by Molinier

The underside of this bust has various paper collects ion labels (with the numbers 1271 and 1057), an oval Morgan collects ion label (M.M 102 and 32?...), and the Morgan number (PM 2171) painted in red as well as a French customs label.

In 1916, the collects ion was sold to Duveen brothers and was later acquired by Norton Simon (1907– 993), the American industrialist, philanthropist and art collects or who founded the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. Some of Norton Simon’s collects ion was later sold at Parke- Bernet Galleries in 1971. The present bust was subsequently given as a gift to the late husband of the present owner (and president of the Norton-Simon company).

This lot is sold with a copy of a Thermoluminescence Analysis Report, sample N123a26, from Oxford Authentication, stating that the samples taken in December 2022 indicate that this bust was last fired between 300 and 600 years ago.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Hess, Italian ceramics: catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum collects ion, Los Angeles 2002, no. 17, pp. 96-103;
J. Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, vol. 2, pp. 434-438