Galileo Galilei - The Queen's House, Greenwich, London, UK - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The Royal Museums Greenwich website tells us about the bust of Galileo Galilei:

Italian reliquary pearwood bust of Galileo, the Pisan-born experimental natural philosopher and astronomer. He is shown head, shoulders and upper torso, in old age and slightly larger than life, looking to his left and dressed in a robe with a fur collar. A ribbon with an indeterminate pendant hangs over the collar and a loose shirt is visible round the neck beneath it.

At the back is a circular glazed recess containing a relic in the form of a piece of crimson velvet with a fringe, possibly a piece of fabric from Galileo's academic chair.

The carved socle consists of a group of astronomical and mathematical instruments round a flared square base surmounted by a globe, which has been carved back to leave a tilted ecliptical band of the signs of the zodiac round it in high relief.

This item was previously in the Methuen collection at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, from which it was sold at Christie's in 1920.

The exact date is not yet known but a manuscript note, added to the bust's entry in the 1903 printed Methuen catalogue still held at Corsham, records the sale and that the purchaser was 'Gabb' (ie George Gabb) for 58 guineas. The former Corsham portrait of Galileo by Sustermans, sold for the same price in a different Christie's sale that year, was also bought by Gabb though not apparently at the auction.

A photograph at Corsham, taken about 1882, shows the bust standing on a square wooden plinth in the lower corridor there, where the Sustermans portrait also hung at that time. Like the painting, and many other items there, the bust was acquired by the Revd John Sanford (d. 1855) who lived and collected in Florence for about five years up to 1837. In Sanford's privately printed catalogue raisonée of his collection of 1847 it is simply listed as 'purchased in Florence' and, with the rest, was inherited by his daughter who in 1844 married Frederick Methuen, later second Lord Methuen.

The Gabb Collection, including this bust and another in bronze, and all three of the Museum's oil portraits of Galileo, was purchased en bloc for the Museum by Sir James Caird, formal acquisition being on 1 March 1937. The carver of this bust not known, but it has recently been suggested that it may be someone in the circle of Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652-1737), who was the leading sculptor in Florence from the mid-1680s and who designed the monumental tomb in Santa Croce to which Galileo's remains were moved in 1737.

The BBC website has an article about Galileo Galilei that tells us:

Galileo was a hugely influential Italian astronomer, physicist and philosopher.

Galileo Galilei was born on 15 February 1564 near Pisa, the son of a musician. He began to study medicine at the University of Pisa but changed to philosophy and mathematics. In 1589, he became professor of mathematics at Pisa. In 1592, he moved to become mathematics professor at the University of Padua, a position he held until 1610. During this time he worked on a variety of experiments, including the speed at which different objects fall, mechanics and pendulums.

In 1609, Galileo heard about the invention of the telescope in Holland. Without having seen an example, he constructed a superior version and made many astronomical discoveries. These included mountains and valleys on the surface of the moon, sunspots, the four largest moons of the planet Jupiter and the phases of the planet Venus. His work on astronomy made him famous and he was appointed court mathematician in Florence.

In 1614, Galileo was accused of heresy for his support of the Copernican theory that the sun was at the centre of the solar system. This was revolutionary at a time when most people believed the Earth was in this central position. In 1616, he was forbidden by the church from teaching or advocating these theories.

In 1632, he was again condemned for heresy after his book 'Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems' was published. This set out the arguments for and against the Copernican theory in the form of a discussion between two men. Galileo was summoned to appear before the Inquisition in Rome. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, later reduced to permanent house arrest at his villa in Arcetri, south of Florence. He was also forced to publicly withdraw his support for Copernican theory.

Although he was now going blind he continued to write. In 1638, his 'Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences' was published with Galileo's ideas on the laws of motion and the principles of mechanics. Galileo died in Arcetri on 8 January 1642.