{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O66333"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O66333/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CP5126/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CP5126/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CP5126","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CP5125","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AF3993","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AF1012","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JT2675","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O66333/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O66333","accessionNumber":"A.12-1948","objectType":"Bust","titles":[{"title":"Self-portrait, Alessandro Vittoria","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"In 1543 Alessandro Vittoria moved to Venice, where he became the most important sculptor in the city. He produced many lively and realistic busts in bronze, marble and terracotta. This one may have been a preparatory model for the marble version on his own tomb in the church of San Zaccaria.","physicalDescription":"The man is balding with a pointed beard, and his head is turned to the left. A cloak, which falls in heavy folds, is held by a clasp on his right shoulder. Beneath the cloak he wears a buttoned tunic with a high collar.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Vittoria, Alessandro","id":"A4032"},"association":{"text":"workshop of","id":"x28708"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"terracotta","id":"AAT10669"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Terracotta, painted and incised","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[{"text":"Renaissance","id":"AAT21140"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2009CP5126","2009CP5125","2006AF3993","2006AF1012","2017JT2675"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"62 (VA)","id":"THES49739"},"free":"","case":"WN","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Bust","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Venice","id":"x29237"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1600","earliest":"1595-01-01","latest":"1604-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mr F. Cavendish Bentinck","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"81","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"59","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"32","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"56","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Measured for the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Alessandro Vittoria","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"19th century (probably)","earliest":"1800-01-01","latest":"1900-12-31"},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"painted","position":"On the base","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Inscription; decoration","note":"Inscription; decoration; on the base; painted; 19th century (probably)"}],"objectHistory":"The bust was in Palazzo Manfrin in Venice, when it was acquired, before 1870, for the Cavendish Bentinck collection, together with five companion busts. The Manfrin collection was formed by Count Girolamo Manfrin in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. From 1871 the bust was on loan to the V&A. It was presented to the museum in 1948 by F. Cavendish-Bentinck.","historicalContext":"Alessandro Vittoria was, together with his contemporary Giambologna, the foremost sculptor in late sixteenth century Italy. While he worked in many media and genres, his portraits have enjoyed particular critical acclaim since Vasari first praised them. \r\nVittoria popularised the genre of the portrait bust in Venice during the second half of the sixteenth century, transforming it into the dominant mode of sculptured portraiture, and exerted a near monopoly on its production. \r\nThe culture promulgated by an avant-garde of artists, patrons and intellectuals in Renaissance Venice allowed Vittoria's gift as a portraitist to flourish. \r\nThe demand for portraits busts coincides with the introduction of the classicizing busts in Venice, a genre in which Vittoria specialized.  A \"all'antica\" portrait not only showed devotion to the classical past, it also marked another stage in Venice's quest during the sixteenth century to invest itself with antique auctoritas. Portrait busts such as this one were status symbols amongst the Venetian elite.","briefDescription":"Terracotta bust, self-portrait of Alessandro Vittoria, Italy (Venice), ca. 1600","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Martin, Thomas <u>Alessandro Vittoria and the portrait bust in Renaissance Venice</u> Oxford, 1998. Cat. 47, pp. 148-9"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Avery, Charles <u>Fingerprints of the artist. European terra-cotta from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections</u> Exhibition Catalogue, Washington, 1981. p. 24"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pope-Hennessy, John. <font -u>Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum</font>, London: HMSO, 1964. cat. no. 572. fig. no. 559."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Burns, Howard, et al., <u>Andrea Palladio 1508-1580: the Portico and the Farmyard</u>, London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1975."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Vittoria, Alessandro","id":"N1447"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}},{"text":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}},{"text":"The 19th-century inscription on the base, 'Alessandro Vittoria', appears to be correct, as the portrait corresponds closely to the marble version on the artist's tomb in San Zaccaria, Venice (1602-05). Slight differences in the handling of details lend support to the suggestion that this is the preparatory model for the marble bust. The bust came from the Palazzo Manfrin in Venice, together with five others acquired at the same time.","date":{"text":"April 1992","earliest":"1992-04-01","latest":"1992-04-30"}},{"text":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}},{"text":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["A.12-1948"],"accessionNumberNum":"12","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1948,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LN9041","2019LV1795","2019LV8583"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-23","recordCreationDate":"2002-06-28","availableToBook":false}}