Pair of marble busts - Rome c. 1600

This fine pair of marble busts depicts Christ and the Virgin.
The bust of Christ belongs to a select group of well-documented bust portraits of the early seventeenth century. His features evoke the impassive mask of Antiquity, yet the almost wet effect of the flattened hair prevents any resemblance to the traditional bearded god. Closely related to a bust in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, executed in Rome around 1600, it offers the devotee and the viewer an impenetrable gaze, echoing the spirit of works by Ippolito Buzzi (the Christ of Ornan; Saint James in San Giacomo al Corso).

Both busts express the same inward, idealized form of devotion. Combining virtuosity of execution with restraint of expression, they embody the renewed order of religious sculpture in Rome around 1600.

Bibliographie : Malgouyres, P., Ippolito Buzzi chez Gustave Courbet ..., Études sur la sculpture offertes à Geneviève Bresc-Bautier, Mare et Martin Arts, 2025, p. 207–214.