A Black Youth
Entry ID
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41 (12/01/2022)
Formal title of the work
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A Black Youth
Description of the sculpture
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Bust depicting a servant, possibly based upon a specific individual, wearing a servant's tunic with frogged fastenings in the Eastern European or Ottoman style. Traces of red paint are present on the lips and the bust is hollowed out behind and may well have been originally designed for a circular niche. There is an old metal ring at the back for fixing. The green marble base is a replacement and dates from the 19th-century.
URLs where this is recorded/available
Type of object
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Bust – Portrait
Base
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Base present - may be a later replacement
Dimensions
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Height: 65.5 cm
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Width: 52.5 cm
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Depth: 24 cm
Materials
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Marble – black
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Marble – another colour (not black or white)
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Mother of pearl
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Metal (unidentified)
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Glass
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Paint / pigment
Specific techniques used
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Carving
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Polychromy
Overall colour
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Polychrome
Does the Black person have a specific identity?
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Anonymous: specific individual but not currently identifiable
Role within sculpture
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Main protagonist
Gender
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Male
Age
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Adolescent
Status
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Servant
Clothing
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Wearing clothes – ‘exotic’ clothing
Evidence of enslavement
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None
Evidence of 'exotic' status
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‘Exotic’ costume/dress
Action or activity
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Not relevant (head)
Emotional state
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Anxious/fearful
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Annoyed/displeased
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Neutral/emotionless
Focus of gaze of Black person
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Looking sideways
Sculptural context
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No location included/implied
Place of production
Period of production
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Eighteenth century (1700-1799)
Date of Production
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c. 1700 - 1750
Date inferred from
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Inferred from stylistic features
Original purpose
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Decorative
Original display setting
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Inside: wall/niche
Current owner
Current / most recently known location
Accession number
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451-1869
Provenance history
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1869: purchased in Florence (Gagliardi)
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1869: acquired by South Kensington Museum (now named the Victoria and Albert Museum)
Current rights holder
License terms for reuse
‘A Black Youth’ (no date), Black People in European Sculpture, accessed May 5, 2025, http://13.41.147.145/s/database/item/402
