Overall standard surface wear and small chips and restoration throughout. Losses and restoration to lower portions of beard. Loss to upper section of proper right ear. Loss to both shoulder areas, one with restoration. Some restoration to proper left earlobe. Two visible and stable internal cracks, one from proper right temple through upper portion of bridge of nose and another from proper left calvicle through far left lock of beard and upward. Well-done restoration throughout including fill on underside and back of base. Cracks restored and stable. Fill to back and tip of nose. Surface unified with some in-painting. Lovely quality.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This sensitively modelled terracotta was most likely made as a bozetto for a larger marble or stone sculpture and would have been used to illustrate the progress of the sculptor's work to his patron. The modelling of the face and the tooling of the beard and base recall the work of the great masters of the Roman Baroque including Bernini, Ferrata and Cafà.

Signficant analogies with the present lot can be found among the projects designed by Melchiorre Cafà  (1636–1667), an accomplished sculptor from Malta who entered the workshop of Ercole Ferrata in Rome in 1658. Cafà's terracotta bozetti of  Saint Andrew (Sciberras, op. cit., fig. 85) and Saint Andrea Avellino (Sciberras, op. cit., fig. 86), both in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, are the models for Ferrata's statues of the two Saints in S. Andrea del🅷la Valle, Rome. While a comparison of drapery styles cannot be made here, the heads, however, show a striking similarity; their inclined position as well as the parted lips and shape of the noses are comparable. Furthermore, the shape of the deep-set eyes with gouged pupils and the articulated edges of the lids also echo the treatment in the smaller heads of the terracotta figures i𝔍n St. Petersburg.

The degree of finish on the surface and the inclusion of the integral base suggest that the&nbs꧃p;present sculpture was intended as an independent work of art as well as a sketch model.

RELATED LITERATURE
Ian Wardropper et al., From the Sculptor's Hand. Italian Baroque Terracottas from the State Hermitage Museum, (exh. cat.), The Art Institute of Chicago, February 28 - May 3, 1998, no. 29
K. Sciberras (ed.), Melchiorre Cafà, Maltese Genius of the Roman Baroque, Malta, 2006