Object Type
This terracotta bust of the Duchess of Richmond may have been a model for the marble bust on her tomb in Deene Church, Northamptonshire, erected by her son in 1734, or alternatively a (slightly cheaper) version of the portrait made for the family home.

People
Giovanni Battista Guelfi was born in Bergamo, but trained as a sculptor in Rome. He seems to have arrived in Britain in about 1720 or early 1721 at the invitation of Thomas Fermor, Lord Leominster (created 1st Earl of Pomfret in 1721), through the introduction arranged by the painter and designer (and later architect and landscapist) William Kent (1684-1748). Guelfi worked in Britain until the early 1730s, and then appears to have returned to Italy, although no record is known of his work after he left Britain, and he may have died shortly thereafter. During his time here he executed a number of important funerary monuments and some portrait busts, the latter notably for Queen Caroline's Grotto in the grounds of Kew Palace, Surrey.

Materials & Making
Terracotta (baked clay) was often used to make a preliminary model, since the sculptor could work the malleable clay relatively easily that was then to be fired in order to produce a durable piece of sculpture. Sometimes terracotta was used for aftercasts of an existing marble version of a portrait bust or figure group. The clay would first be pressed into a multi-piece mould modelled from the original marble, and once the pieces were fitted together, was then fired.