Description

Marble, Inscribed on back: "C.N. Cantalamessa//Papotti//Roma 1873"

MIT commissioned this bust of William Barton Rogers by the Italian sculptor Nicola Cantalmessa-Papotti in the early 1870s. Rogers, in turn, commissioned a second bust of his late brother Henry Darwin Rogers. (It was Henry who had urged his brother to articulate his vision for a new kind of academic institution.) There are other busts of Rogers in the museum's collections and on display at the Institute. The head of this bust was broken off at one point and repaired. There are additional chips in the marble along the edges of the robe in the front and in the hair along the right ear.