St Peter of Verona, Christian Martyr

ca. 1490

Andrea della Robbia

This powerfully expressive bust of a Dominican monk by Andrea della Robbia, a great sculptor of the early Florentine Renaissance, is striking in its naturalism. The subject, already dead for two and a half centuries, appears before us as in a realistic portrait, the illusion of life enhanced by the colouring of the eyes, lips, cheekbones and hair in enamelled terracotta.