This figure’s individualized facial expression, dynamic turn of the head and animated drapery are all characteristic of 17th-century Roman portrait sculpture. Guidi, a pupil of Alessandro Algardi, juxtaposed broad swaths of drapery and deeply drilled and carved hair with delicate surface detail, visible here in the patterning of the jacket and the faint suggestion of a beard. Based on a comparison with a later portrait on the family tomb in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, the sitter has been identified as Fabrizio Naro (d. 1697), marquis of Mompei.
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.