Italian Ceramics: Catalogue of the J. Paul Getty Museum Collection

17c Inside of bust.

of modeling the face appears to have been left to a tal­

ented sculptor, possibly one who was active or educated

in the circle of a Florentine master toward the end of the

fifteenth century. Finally, to judge from the colors and

patterns employed, the surface decoration—its glazing,

painting, and firing—was the work of a ceramist who

was working in Tuscany or influenced by Tuscan sculp­

ture. The work displays not only a palette of vivid and

saturated yellow, green, and blackish blue but also pat­

terns—such as the cube and cloverleaf patterns on

Christ's tunic—typical of this area of production

(figs. 17D, 17F).^6

Given the difficulty in pinning down a specific cen­

ter of production, this object underwent neutron activa­

tion analysis in spring 2001 under the direction of

scientist Michael Hughes, formerly of the British Mu­

seum, London. The analysis was carried out at the Uni­

versity of Missouri Research Reactor, and the data was

compared against the British Museum database.^7 The re­

sults of the analysis show that the clay of this bust orig­

inated in Montelupo.

Indeed, several scholars maintain that the produc­

tion of sculptural devotional figures and altarpieces was

a specialty of Montelupine ceramic workshops in the

100 Bust of Christ