Master of the Frowning Profiles

The style of the bust, the decoration near the rim and the base, the floral decoration, and the thick brushstrokes suggest that the piece was made in Naples. It belongs to a group of albarelli with similar female profiles, two of them found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and dated to 1530 – 1560. The albarelli are particularly notable for the ‘fierce stare’ of the women painted on them, which led art historian Guido Donatone to dub the artist Maestro dei Profili Corrucciati or the Master of the Frowning Profiles.