Nicolò Stefano Traverso, portrait of a gentleman, white marble Nicolò Stefano Traverso (Genoa 1745-1823) PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN white marble bust on a base consisting of a stack of volumes in various marbles, 52x33x24 cm Provenance Carlo Alberto Foresti Collection, Carpi; Private collection Literature D. Colli, L. Foresti, Casa Foresti: storia, vicende e avventura artistica , Carpi 1999, p. 21; M. Salomone, Un busto di Nicolò Traverso proveniente dalla collezione di Santo Varni , in 'Studi Neoclassici. Rivista Internazionale', no. 11, Pisa-Roma 2023, pp. 33-39 A pupil of Francesco Maria Schiaffino in Genoa and later a follower of Antonio Canova in Rome (1771-90), Traverso was one of the most notable Genoese Neo-Classical sculptors, in whose works (statues for the Palazzo Ducale and numerous churches and palaces in Genoa) a certain 18th-century grace can still be seen. The bust presented here, also recently published as a comparison by Matteo Salomone, is the marble version, with the addition of the original base consisting of a series of volumes on scientific subjects - of which some titles are still legible - of a terracotta bust from the collection of the Genoese sculptor Santo Varni (1807-1885). The identification of the effigy has unfortunately not yet been defined, and the one traditionally proposed by Luigi Foresti with the polemicist, philosopher and scientist Mario Nozzoli (1498-1556) seems entirely improbable.