ABSTRACT
Benedetto da Maiano's terracotta bust of Filippo Strozzi (ca. 1475, Bode Museum Berlin) is considered to be a model of the signed and dated marble portrait in the Louvre – and a rare testimony to the working practice of a quattrocento sculptor. Unfortunately, almost exactly 400 years later, the original polychromy of the terracotta bust fell victim to this assumption. Although Wilhelm von Bode after the purchase emphasized the “excellent preservation of the old painting “and praised its high-quality execution, the curator of the collection in Berlin-Dahlem decided to remove it in 1977. However, hitherto unnoticed analyses of the binding agent and pigments as well as unpublished photographs of the removal of the painting indicate that the polychromy of the Berlin portrait must have been part of the original design. This is also supported by a comparison with other terracotta busts, some of which are little known. This chapter deals with the painted and modelled surface of Florentine terracotta busts of the Quattrocento. It seeks to show the significance of the surface for the evidence of the “face” and for the object as a whole.
