Alfonso I of Aragon, King of Naples

The significant coiffure and the prominently staged neckchain of the Order of the Golden Fleece are the distinguishing features of this posthumously created portrait bust. The king was known to have been wise and mild, yet also inclined to “a love of pomp and lust”. In 1445, Alfonso I became the first foreign king to be elected to the Order of the Golden Fleece of Burgundy. After the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, Alfonso accommodated the Greek scholars who had been driven from the city in his realm.