| TITLE
| Francesco Petrarch |
| CREATOR | unknown |
| DATE | 19th century |
| DIMENSIONS | 27 x 15 x 9 in. |
| ORIGINAL FORMAT | Sculpture |
| MEDIUM | Plaster |
| PHYSICAL NOTE | This plaster sculpture is one of the 16 that sit atop the bookshelves in the library’s main hall. |
| LOCATION | Providence Athenæum: Main Library |
This bust of the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch [1304-1374] is one of sixteen that circle the Athenæum’s main hall.
After briefly studying law in Bologna, Petrarch, who was born in Tuscany, abandoned his studies to pursue scholarship of the classics. He came to be considered the founder of Renaissance humanism, and was a prolific poet and writer of letters, essays, and histories. The Phalen bust does not appear to be a replica of an earlier sculpture, but may have been inspired by Petrarch's depiction in portraits, which often show him wearing similar Medieval clothing and a laurel wreath.