CIRCLE OF NICOLAS CORDIER (D. 1612), ROME, 17TH CENTURY

Artistic depictions of moors in antiquity were common, and the renaissance saw a revival of interest in the subject. Nicolas Cordier (1567-1612) was among the first to sculpt a black man; his full length figure of a Moor was one of the jewels of the Borghese collection but was later sold to Napoleon and is today in the château de Versailles (Pressouyre, loc. cit.). In Rome, the little-known sculptor Francesco Caporale was commissioned to carve a portrait of the ambassador from the Congo, Antonio Il Negrita, in 1608.
The head of the male moor was possibly inspired by a head of an African man in the Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome (Giffin, loc. cit.) sometimes dated to the 2nd century B.C. This bust, which first entered the museum's collection in 1907-8, has been the subject of a debate as to whether it is of ancient Hellenistic or sixteenth century origin (Giffin, loc. cit., pp. 6-11). The bust bears a striking resemblance to the work of Cordier's Il Moro, as well as the present male head, and it is possible it formed the basis for both works, or instead that the sculptor responsible for the present heads was looking towards Cordier's instantly influential figure.