Hydrocephalus, rickets, and the bust of an infant from Renaissance Italy

Excerpt

In the depot of the Museo Nazionale di Bargello in Florence is the unusual marble bust of an infant (Fig. 1 and cover). The portrait shows what seems to be a dead boy, with closed eyes in slightly sunken cavities and a pointed nose in the otherwise well-nourished face with its chubby cheeks, folds of fat around the neck, and rounded upper body. He must have been around a year of age when he was portrayed. Usually, portraits draw their power from the sitter’s eyes and a varying amount of “staging” by means of clothes and attributes—things that speak to us and tell a story. Yet, this little boy is naked, and there are no signs of his identity or social status.

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