30 September 2010

Three fair ladies of Italy

From a return visit to the Cast Court at the Victoria & Albert Museum, three casts of medieval and Renaissance Italian sculptures:
SONY DSC1860s cast of a marble bust of an unknown woman, perhaps Sigligaita Rufolo, from the Cathedral at Ravello on the Amalfi coast in southern Italy, c. 13th century. 

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Cast of a marble bust of a pensive woman, perhaps Ippolita Maria Sforza, first wife of King Alfonso II of Naples, by artist Francesco Laurana, c.1472.  The cast was taken around 1889-94 from the original, which was later destroyed in Berlin in 1945. 

SONY DSCA marvellously haughty personage carved by sculptor Andrea dell’Aquila in the second half of the 15th century.  The original is in the Bode Museum in Berlin, where this cast was taken in 1889-91.

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