Portrait of Filippo Strozzi

In this bust, Benedetto da Maiano gives a masterful account of the refined, cerebral features of one of the most respected citizens of fifteenthcentury Florence. His modelling follows the guidelines of nature precisely, recalling the incorruptible realism of Early Netherlandish painting. The image is in fact a model for the marble bust, now in the Louvre, which Filippo di Matteo Strozzi (1428–1492) commissioned from the artist in 1475. In all probability it was intended for his tomb in Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Among all the significant portrait busts of the Early Italian Renaissance, there is no other for which both the clay model and the finished marble version have survived.