The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Bust Pair: Head of a Man and Head of a Woman

Bust Pair: Head of a Man and Head of a Woman

c. 1800
Overall: 7 x 4 x 4.2 cm (2 3/4 x 1 9/16 x 1 5/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

Each of these miniscule terracotta busts has allegedly been formed by hand, though the precision of the detailed features implies that they have been cast from a mold. Details such as the meticulously executed facial features and the thin, exact rows of hair on each figure suggest a manufactured method of creation. Furthermore, these figures lack any trace of fingerprints that handmade figures of this time typically bear. Small holes at the base of each bust suggest that the heads were once attached to bodies that may have been used as crèche figurines. The busts were created in Naples where large numbers of nativity scenes were produced around the turn of the nineteenth century. The similarity in size to archetypal terracotta crèche figurines as well as the vast production of nativities in Naples at this time suggest that these busts were created for a nativity scene.
  • Bondy, Vienna
    Oscar Bondy (Vienna, Austria)
    Leopold and Ruth Blumka, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1965.
  • Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Bust Pair: Head of a Man and Head of a Woman|url=false|author=|year=c. 1800|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.74