Oltre «li mirabil fogliami»: testimonianze dell’attività di Ambrogio Barocci come ritrattista

The essay deal with the significant contribution of the Lombard sculptor Ambrogio Barocci (also known as Ambrogio da Milano) in the field of portraiture. This part of the artist's career has remained relatively unexplored in scholarly studies until now. However, thanks to recent discoveries and documentary evidences, this aspect is emerging as crucial in his artistic activity. The text begins with a comprehensive analysis of the profile portrait of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, which during the 19th Century became part of the National Museum of Bargello collection in Florence. This marble bas-relief is significant, not only because it is one of the most notable portraits of the Duke, but also by virtue of the long-debated question about its authorship. The essay devotes an almost monographic section to this portrait, presenting for the first time the attribution to Ambrogio Barocci. This identification is based on stylistic analysis and documentary evidences that demonstrate the origin of the work from the Marche region, where Barocci has been active for an extended period. Furthermore, a second proposal for attribution to Barocci is made, and it is related to the “Portrait of a Young Man” in marble, previously part of the Altman collection and now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This hypothesis suggests that Barocci also sculpted portraits in the form of busts.