Tuscan sculptor, 15th century, a large virile head, marble Tuscan sculptor, 15th century LARGE VIRILE HEAD marble sculpture, 51x27x33 cm Literature A. Parronchi, Il 'ghugante' di Agostino di Duccio , in "Prospettiva" N. 53/56, Scritti in ricordo di Giovanni Previtali , Vol. I (April 1988 - January 1989), pp. 227-235 This large and unusual marble head, for which a precise definition is still lacking, boasts an interesting hypothetical attribution to the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio (Florence 1418 - Perugia 1481), put forward in the late 1980s by Alessandro Parronchi. It was precisely the discovery of this sculpture that was the starting point for an in-depth study on a documented but lost work by Agostino di Duccio for the spurs of the tribunes of the Duomo of Florence: 'a gughante in quella forma e manera che quello el quale è sopra a porta che va a' Servi o migliore' ('a head in that form and manner that the one above the door that goes to the Servants or better'). With regard to the head, Parronchi writes: "In the features, sketchy and very incisive, a heroic character is fixed that may recall effigies of Roman emperors. A certain accentuation of the mask also brings it close to mediaeval examples. More characteristic of the head, however, is the Renaissance imprint, so that it was also cleverly assumed to be one of the protomes, added to the oak ones, placed at the top of the pilasters between the nosings of the outer arches of the Cathedral of Lucca. But the head did not belong to a bust but to a statue. A line is engraved on the marble to mark the vertical axis on which the entire figure was set'.