Collections And Critiques

From sixteenth century Italy there has lately come to the Fogg an imaginary portrait head, the gift of Mr. Grenville L. Winthrop '86 of New York City. It represents a type of small bronze, little known in this country but prominent in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and in older private collections such as the Morgan, or the Dreyfus Collection.

It was brought over four years ago by Lord Duveen and shown at the Fogg. The head is the work of the conservative, elegant wing of late Renaissance sculpture which at first sight appears to be a copy of some portrait of Marcus Aurelius with its finely shaped head, its mass of close curls and prominent brooding eyes, all familiar from his equestrian statue as emperor and his marble bust as a boy.

There is the same fiat austerity of modeling in the face, the same crisp brilliance in hair and the suggestion of light on the pupils.