Portrait of Luca Salvioni

Deep wrinkles, gaunt cheeks, strong jaw—the scholar and law professor Luca Salvioni is portrayed with precision and no embellishment. There is no attempt to conform to an ideal or a standard of beauty. Renaissance sculptors often played up the singularity of a person’s face as a way of emphasizing the importance of the individual. This artistic approach, which had strong political underpinnings, harked back to the time of the ancient Roman Republic.