The disgruntled, bald-headed man is looking obliquely upward. He wears a tucked shirt under a leather jerkin edged with indented piping and fastened with a loop and button. Although both the clothing and overall style of the terracotta refer to portrait busts and character studies (tronies) from the early seventeenth century, the dry modelling and schematic physiognomy, such as large eyes and angular chin, point to production of a much later date, probably the nineteenth century. There are absolutely no clues as to the function and significance of the this caricatural bust in historicizing style. It might conceivably have been an academic exercise.
Bieke van der Mark, 2026
