This portrait bust represents a nobleman and is made in Lombardy in ca. 1560-1580. The base is modern and with its inscription 'FER. GONZAGA MCCCCCXXXVI' led to the wrong assumption that the portrait represented Ferrante Gonzaga (1506-57), Prince of Guastalla. The form of the bust, tapering to a point at the bottom of the breastplate, and the carving of detail suggest a connection with the workshop of Leone Leoni. Renaissance noblemen liked to portray themselves as both classical heroes and fashionable men-at-arms. This unidentified sitter wears rounded pauldrons (shoulder guards) and a pointed peascod breastplate copied from contemporary doublets. The sculptor has imitated the etched bands of ornament inspired by Islamic designs popular on north Italian armour of the 1570s.
Leone Leoni (1509-1590) was an Italian sculptor with an international perspective. Amongst others, he received commissions by the Habsburg monarch Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Spain's Philip II. It is probable that Leone's formative years were spent training as a goldsmith in Venice or Padua. After 1533 he is recorded with his wife and son in Venice and he later lived in Rome. In 1542 he moved to Milan, where his career as a coiner and medallist flourished. He went to Brussels to propose to Charles V to erect an equestrian portrait to the emperor in Milan. Charles V gave him a house in Milan and knighted him. After that he spent 7 years working on imperial commissions in Milan. The death of Charles V shifted his patronage from Spain back to Italy, where Michelangelo recommended him to Pope Pius IV, who then commissioned him to erect a tomb for the Pope's brother Gian Giacomo de' Medici in Milan Cathedral. Completed in 1563, this is one of his most important works. He was also well known for his art collection, plaster casts, paintings and sculpture.