ATTRIBUTED TO DOMENICO POGGINI (1520-1590), ITALIAN, FLORENCE, 16TH CENTURY | HEAD OF A YOUNG MAN, POSSIBLY PIETRO DE' MEDICI (1554-1604)

The attribution of this delicately carved head to Domenico Poggini is supported by the close comparisons with the bust of Filippo de’ Medici as a Child, sold in these rooms 5 December 2012, lot 42. Previously with the Heim Gallery (op. cit.) the latter was published by Karla Langedijk in 1974 and 1983. The shallow carving of the wavy tufts of hair have striking affinities in both busts, the blank eyes and defined eye brows are also similar. However, the fragmentary condition of the present bust prevents a complete comparison of the drapery, although the simple turned up collar is analogous.

On occasions Poggini handles hair with more volume and undercutting, such as in the standing New Test.mes nt female figure in the Bargello (inv. no. 182) or the figure of Bacchus in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 41.190.269), but closer examples to the present bust can be identified such as the bust of Virginia Pucci Ridolfi (Bargello) and, above all, the bust of Francis I de’ Medici in the Uffizi. A possible identification of the present bust with another member of the Medici family, Pietro de’ Medici, is an intriguing possibility when compared with the portrait from the circle of Bronzino, formerly in the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, sold Christie's New York, 4 November 1983, lot 70.

RELATED LITERATURE

Sculptures of the 15th & 16th centuries, exh. cat. Heim Gallery, London, 1972, no. 14; K. Langedijk, 'Two Portrait Busts of a Child: Filippo de'Medici by Domenico Poggini', Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorisches Institutes in Florenz, 18, 1974, pp. 379-383, fig. 2; K. Langedijk, The portraits of the Medici. 15th-18th centuries, Florence, 1983, vol. II, pp. 849-850