It has been proposed that these two busts may well be Genoese. They would appear to date from the beginning of the 18th century, as is suggested in particular by the burgeoning elaboration of their bases, but the costume of the sitters belongs to an earlier period. It therefore seems reasonable to suppose that they - presumably with other busts - were part of a portrait gallery emphasising the patron's illustrious forebears. The generic nature of the coats-of-arms, as well as the fact that they are without colour, is likely to make a secure identification virtually impossible until further busts of the same type emerge.