This bust was carved by Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652-1725), court sculptor to Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. It shows Cardinal Gian Carlo de’ Medici (1611-1663), son of Cosimo II and brother of Ferdinando II de’ Medici. Initially intended for a military career Gian Carlo entered the church and was appointed cardinal in 1644.

The bust is part of a series of eight busts of Medici family members, held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Gallery of Art, Washington; Private Collection, Florence; and Museo Storico della Caccia e il Territorio of Cerretto Guidi, Florence.

The attribution of these busts to Foggini was first suggested by Molesworth in 1954 and later confirmed by other critics although the details of the commission remained unknown for a long time. Payments to Foggini published in 2019 by Riccardo Spinelli can now confirm the attribution to the court sculptor and bring further information about the original commission. The series of eight bust was commissioned in the 1680s by Cardinal Francesco Maria de’ Medici (1660-1711), Cosimo III’s younger brother, for the Villa di Lappeggi, the cardinal’s country residence. The busts were all paid between 1681 and 1689. More specifically, the bust of the Cardinal Gian Carlo was planned, alongside the bust of Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici, in November 1683 and completed by the end of August 1685.

In the early 1680s, Foggini was still a relatively young sculptor. He had first trained in Florence with his uncle Jacopo Maria Foggini, a wood sculptor, and then spent a few years in Rome at the ‘Florentine Academy’, with the painter Ciro Ferri and the sculptor Ercole Ferrata. He soon showed a great talent and received several important commissions, especially that of the Corsini chapel decoration in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. With this series of Medici busts, he was able to demonstrate his skills in portraiture. In this instance, Foggini was brought the model to life and translated a subtle introspection of the character even with someone he had never met, since Cardinal Gian Carlo had died in 1663 when Foggini was only a child. Foggini soon became the foremost sculptor in Florence and was appointed Court Sculptor to the Grand Duke in 1687, and a few years later Court Architect and head of the Galleria dei Lavori, the Medici manufacture.

The inventory drafted after Cardinal Francesco Maria’s death in 1711 listed the eight busts in the villa Lappeggi. The identity of the sitters as well as that of the sculpture were soon forgotten. The series later went to the Palazzo Capponi-Covoni in Florence, then bought by the antique dealer Stefano Bardini who recognised that the busts represented members of the Medici family and considered them as having been carved by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bardini dispatched the series over the years. Two busts are recorded in his 1899 sale (see Catalogue des Objects d’Art…provenant de la Collection Bardini de Florence, London, Christie’s, 1899, June 5, nn. 480-481, as Bernini), while the present bust was sold at Bardini’s 1902 sale (Christie’s, London, 30 May 1902, no. 589, as Bernini, bought by Ward for £280). The bust of Gian Carlo reappeared in 1938 at the Mortimer Schiff Sale still as Bernini (Christie’s London, 23 June 1938, no.149, as Bernini, bought by Smith for £136 10s ) and was purchased by the V&A a decade later at Sotheby’s, London (13 June 1947, no.95 as a 17th century French marble), under the terms of the John Webb Trust.