Bust of Alfonso II d'Avalos
Possibly commissioned by Francesco Ferdinando d'Avalos (1530-1571; viceroy of Sicily 1568-71), Palermo; by descent in the d'Avalos family, Naples, until 1883; Jacques Seligmann (1858-1923), Paris; from whom purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1905 (as Benvenuto Cellini).
In the first half of the 16th century, Alfonso d'Avalos wielded considerable power as the governor of Milan and commander of Imperial Forces in Italy under the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This portrait bust of d'Avalos is now recognized as the work of Annibale Fontana, a medalist and engraver, who at the end of the 16th century was one of the most important Milanese sculptors. It was executed after the subject's death, and based on a funerary mask molded by the sculptor Leone Leoni in 1546. Morgan purchased it from the dealer Jacques Seligmann as the work of the Florentine sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini, an attribution that was emphatically marked "No" on the invoice by Morgan's librarian Belle da Costa Greene.