Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Head of a young female, face turned to her left shoulder. Hair parted in the centre and mostly concealed beneath a turban.

Gilbert lived in Rome from 1878 until 1884 and the model for this head was his son's Italian nurse Michaelena. The exceptionally fine quality of this cast reveals the 'lost wax' technique of Gilbert's Neopolitan foundry and his own meticulous finishing of the bronze. At the Royal Academy in 1883 it provided a conclusive reply to artists who claimed that Gilbert was a poor portraitist.