A PAIR OF CARVED MARBLE BUSTS OF COURTESANS

These busts represent an ideal type of female beauty, and were certainly executed in the late 17th or early 18th century. They follow in the artistic tradition of Giusto Le Court, a Flemish sculptor who spent most of his career in Venice. With their delicate features and upturned, rounded faces, they recall works such as Le Court's full-length figures of Justice and Fortitude on the monument to Alvise Mocenigo in San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti (see Bacchi, op. cit., figs. 411 and 412).