Bust of Thomas Baker explained

Bust of Thomas Baker
Image Upright:	1
Artist:	Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Catalogue:	40
Type:	Sculpture
Material:	Marble
Height Metric:	82
Metric Unit:	cm
Imperial Unit:	in
City:	London
Museum:	Victoria and Albert Museum
Coordinates:	51.4963°N -0.1721°W
Preceded By:	Bust of King Charles I (Bernini)
Followed By:	Medusa (Bernini)

The bust of Thomas Baker is a 1638 marble portrait sculpture created by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, with much of the bust undertaken by a pupil of Bernini, probably Andrea Bolgi.^[1] It is currently held in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, who purchased the bust in 1921 for 1480 English guineas.^{[2] [3] [4]}

Subject

Baker (1606–58) was High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1657 and connected to the court of Charles I. He may have been indirectly involved in another Bernini bust, carrying the triple portrait of Charles I by Van Dyck to Rome; it was from this portrait that Bernini carved the now-destroyed bust of King Charles.^{[1] [2]}

See also

• List of works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Notes and References

1. Rudolf Wittkower, Bernini, the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 1997 (4th ed.), p.259
2. Web site: Image and description of "Portrait of Thomas Baker". Victoria and Albert Museum. 28 August 2011.
3. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1970&dat=19210805&id=jvkxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4eMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3676,2059633 Berkeley Daily Gazette, August 1921
4. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dpZAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=L6UMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5901%2C3299241 The Glasgow Herald, 2 August 1921 – This article also suggests that the bust once belonged to the English seventeenth-century painted Peter Lely, who sold it for GB £150