Cold studio temperatures have diminished my production recently, while other things and ideas have competed for my attention, but a quick trip to visit niece in d.c. gave me a chance to look at this crazy terracotta portrait bust of a Medici dude in the National Gallery. He looks young and valiant and attractive in all the most generic ways while the detailing on the breastplate steals the show. What about that scary mean-face? Normally I do not find this genre of portraiture terribly stimulating, but now I am thinking that a light iron oxide wash to highlight some detail followed by a low firing could be a good new thing to try. This bust of Giuliano de' Medici, the younger brother of Lorenzo, was made by Andrea del Verrocchio. Our boy Giuliano was killed while attending mass in a coup that intended to unseat the hugely powerful but less hugely popular Medici family.
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