Born in Faenza, Raimondo Trentanove initially trained as a sculptor with his father Antonio, before attending the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara under the tutelage of Lorenzo Bartolini (1777–1850). In 1815, Trentanove travelled to Rome to work as an apprentice in the studio of Antonio Canova, the most celebrated artist of the Neoclassical period. In collaboration with Canova, Trentanove worked on a series of busts for the Pantheon and a set of four reliefs to adorn the base of the monument to George Washington commissioned by the state of North Carolina. He continued to work in the spirit of his master, excelling above all in the art of portraiture. Included among his masterpieces are the bust of Pius VII in Ancon, the portrait of Canova in the Galleria Moderna in Milan, and an important memorial bust to the glory of Napoleon at the Museo del Risorgimento in Faenza. 

The present bust is a graceful portrait of a lady in the manner of Canova’s teste ideali, or ideal heads—demonstrations of ideal beauty removed from the irregularities of individualised nature. They became the genre in which Canova, and his pupils, could pursue the perfect balance between idealism and naturalism. The lady’s hair, parted in the centre with curling ringlets framing her face, and her elegant tunic with its beautifully depicted folds of material pinned at her shoulders, exemplify the classically inspired figures of this type.