A Boy

Gian Cristoforo Romano

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

It has recently been suggested that this bust may be an early work of Gian Cristoforo Romano, who trained in Rome but was later employed by the ruling families of Mantua and in Milan. If this is correct, the youth would belong to a prominent Roman family. Two other portrait busts of boys (Staatliche Museum, Berlin and Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla C' d'Oro, Venice) have been associated with this work. In each, the child wears a chain around his nck; ours with a double-barred cross.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art