The 400-year-old alabaster effigy of Florentine merchant Piero Capponi (fig.1) who died of the plague in 1582 is on display in The National Portrait Gallery‘s exhibition Elizabeth I and Her People (10 October - 5 January 2014). The kneeling alabaster figure in full Elizabethan armour is a fine example of monumental carving that survived in a church almost demolished during WWII bombing raids in 1941.…
By
Jane Eade, Former Associate Curator (16th Century Collections)
22 November 2013
