The Bust of Ottavio Farnese at the J. Paul Getty Museum: An Addition to the Corpus of Giovanni Battista della Porta

Abstract

The various sculpted busts of Ottavio Farnese (1524–86), duke of Parma and Piacenza, are still at the center of debates of attribution. Focusing on the bust in Carrara marble in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the author proposes a new attribution to Lombard-born sculptor Giovanni Battista della Porta (1542–97), one of the protagonists of the Roman artistic scene in the second half of the sixteenth century. While archival sources attest to Della Porta’s ambition to work in the service of the duke and to Farnese’s awareness of the sculptor’s artistic achievements, the attribution is largely based on comparisons with Della Porta’s works. Finally, the author discusses hypotheses related to the dating of the bust, the occasion of its creation, its original location in Parma, and the bust’s movements prior to its entry into the Getty collection.