The London "Woman in Anguish", Attributed to Cristoforo Solari: Erotic Pathos in a Renaissance Bust

A remarkable alabaster bust of a semi-clad woman in the Victoria and Albert Museum, formerly attributed to Tullio Lombardo and more recently to Cristoforo Solari, has long been identified as A Virtue. Comparison with sculpture from the Lombardo circle and with early cinquecento northern Italian painting suggests it is instead a uniquely expressive treatment of a distraught antique heroine, possibly Lucretia. Arguments for the Solari attribution are discussed in light of recent research on this important Lombard sculptor, whose documented works on classical subjects are all lost.