CHARLES EDE, LONDON
Stand number: 426
London dealership Charles Ede has been able to track its remarkable provenance. In 1598 this 10in (25cm) bust was drawn by the Flemish artist Theodoor Galle at the Rome studio of the Italian humanist, historian and antiquarian Fulvio Orsini (1529-1600). Orsini was responsible for the identification of multiple ancient Greek and Roman portraits, many of which are still adhered to today, although in the inventory of his collection this bust was thought to be Pittacus.
The drawing, which has survived in the Vatican Library (Codex Capponianus 228), was copied and retouched by Rubens. In Italy for many years, the bust came to the UK in the late 1970s before passing to a French collector in 1999. Ede has priced it at £280,000.
