Bust of a Youth (Saint John the Baptist)

Exhibition history

Art Institute of Chicago, New Acquisitions: Mochi’s 'Bust of a Youth', September 1989 [no cat.]. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Caravaggio & Bernini, October 15, 2019-January 19, 2020, cat. 51; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, February 14-September 13, 2020.

Publications

Charles Oulmont, “Collection M.F. Gentili di Giuseppe,” Les Arts 162 (1917), p. 18 (ill.). Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1988–89, pp. 1, 55, pl. 1. Gazette des Beaux-Arts 67, 6 (March 1991), p. 50, no. 217 (ill.). Ian Wardropper, “A New Attribution to Francesco Mochi,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 17, 2 (1991), pp. 102–19. The Daily Telegraph (17 July 1992). The Independent (17 July 1992). Fine Art & Antiques International 7, 1 (February 1994), cover. Andrea Bacchi and Susanna Zanuso, Scultura del ‘600 a Roma (Milan, 1996), pp. 824–26, 847–60, no. 586. David Eskerdjian, “Scultura del ‘600 a Roma,” Apollo 138, 437 (1996), p. 58. Nancy Moffett, “Art Institute to keep Jewish family’s statue,” Chicago Sun-Times (June 13, 2000), p. 3. Ian Wardropper, “Collecting European Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Apollo 154, 475 (September 2001), pp. 4–5, no. 3. Stefan Weppelmann and Gudrun Swoboda, eds., Caravaggio & Bernini: Early Baroque in Rome, exh. cat. (Munich; London; New York: Prestel, 2019), 96 (detail ill.), 210 (ill.), 211 cat. 51 as Youth (Saint John the Baptist or the Archangel Gabriel?). James Rondeau, ed., Highlights of the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2026), 71, 258, no. 46, (ill.).

Quick Overview

Artist: Francesco Mochi (Italian, 1580–1654)
Date: 1630-40
Medium: Marble on variegated black marble socle
Dimensions: 40.5 × 33 × 29 cm (15 7/8 × 13 × 11 3/8 in.)
Type: Sculpture
Classification: bust/head
Style: Baroque
Place: Italy
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Credit line: From the collection of the estate of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe; purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Harold T. Martin through the Antiquarian Society; Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment; through prior gift of Arthur Rubloff; European Decorative Arts Purchase Fund
Accession no.: 1989.1

Provenance

Collection of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe (died 1940), Paris, by 1917 [see Oulmont 1917]; sold, his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 23 and 24 April 1941, lot 112 as “attribué a Bernini” to Aubry, for 10, 800 francs [see Hôtel Drouot shipping records in curatorial file; auction subsequently declared void by the French court]. Sold, Arcole auction house, Paris, 11 March 1988, Dessins et tableaux anciens, lot 59 as “Le Bernin” to Anthony Roth, London; sold to the Art Institute, 1988.

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.