
Desiderio da SettignanoItalian, 1430–1464May one see it?
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
This is a head of a boy in sandstone (pietra serena). The discoloration of the stone is explained by a tradition that the head was utilised as the weight of a clockwork spit in a kitchen in the Abruzzi. The angle of the neck suggests that the head may be a fragment of a decorative complex rather than an independent sculpture. It finds its closest point of reference in the putto heads in the frieze on the façade of the Pazzi Chapel, but is more coarsely executed, and seems to be the work of an imitator of Desiderio da Settingnano but not of a member of the Desiderio workshop.
Victoria and Albert Museum