2-721-336 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Terracotta bust of a young man, c1860s, (1881). Etching of a portrait bust made c1850-1868 in Florence by Giovanni Bastianini. This sculpture, in the style of a 15th century bust, was made by Giovanni Bastianini (1830-1868), an Italian sculptor and the first widely publicised art forger. He started as a stonecutter in the quarries at Fiesole near Florence, and later worked with an art and antique dealer producing numerous neo-Renaissance works, especially busts and bas-reliefs in the style of Donatello, Verrocchio and Mino de Fiesole. From "The South Kensington Museum", a book of engraved illustrations, with descriptions, of the works of art in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (formerly known as the South Kensington Museum). [Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, London, 1881]