Portrait Bust of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester

Pietro Torrigiano astonished courtiers with his talent when he arrived in England from Florence. This bust was probably made without a commission as a bid by Torrigiano's Florentine hosts to impress John Fisher, who as executor of Henry VIII's grandmother's estate was responsible for her tomb monument. The austere ecclesiastic, who reputedly wore a penitent's hair shirt under his clothes, later fell from favor and was imprisoned for criticizing Henry VIII's divorce and behavior. Pope Paul III made him cardinal; the king's purported response, when ordering Fisher's public beheading, was that he would send the new cardinal's head to Rome to receive his hat.