Pietro Calvi was an eminent ethnographic sculptor whose work reflected a fascination with the Orient. Othello is amongst his early groundbreaking models and was one of the first in which he combined bronze and marble. His harmonious integration of materials recalls the work of the distinguished French 19th-century ethnographic sculptor Charles Cordier, but rather than treating his subjects with scientific precision, Calvi saw the dramatic potential of his North African sitters. It is said that Calvi based the present bust on the likeness of Ira Aldridge (c. 1805-67), who was the first African actor in Europe to play Othello, William Shakespeare's great Moorish tragic hero, who, consumed with jealousy over his wife's imagined infidelity, br...