A humanist and politician, Pontano was perhaps Italy’s greatest Latin poet. This magnificent bronze bust (dating from around 1490) was commissioned by Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Calabria and later King of Naples (Alfonso III), to honour him, in fact Pontano had also been his tutor. 
Adriano Fiorentino worked in bronze making statues and also engraving medals, he worked extensively in Italy and Germany, creating, among other things, two important busts: those of Ferdinand I, in Naples, and of Frederick the Wise, in Dresden.

Loans

Berlin, Gemaeldegalerie - Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin
from 25/08/2011 to 20/11/2011
for the exhibition "Gesichter der Renaissance - Meisterwerke italienischer Portrait-Kunst"

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
from 21/12/2011 to 18/03/2012
for the exhibition "The Renaissance Portrait: from Donatello to Bellini"

Matera, Palazzo Lanfranchi
from 10/04/2019 to 19/08/2019
for the exhibition "Renaissance seen from the South. Matera, southern Italy and the Mediterranean between the 15th and 16th Centuries”