Portrait of Matteo Palmieri

This bust of the Florentine humanist historian Matteo Palmieri (1406-1475) is an authenticated work by Bernardo Rossellino (Italian, 1409-1464). Unusual in florence, until the nineteenth century the original work was displayed over the exterior of his house, so damage can be seem on the work’s surface. The drill holes for the leonine hair are more prominent and resemble those from antiquity. The features were once less coarse than now but the vigorous conception of the humanist – who wrote about free will and was accused for heresy – is preserved. The original is now housed at The Bargello National Museum, Florence.