Pietrò Calvi (d.1884) studied at the Milan Academy and later under the sculptor Giovanni Seleroni. Working in both marble and bronze and often combining the two to very good effect, Calvi frequently took his subjects from the arts, particularly from Shakespeare and the opera. He sculpted figures which now decorate Milan Cathedral and the Galleria Vittoria Emmanuel and in 1877 presented five busts to the city of Naples - Primavera, Mariuccia, the present bust of Othello, Selika (lot 246) and Gennaro - as well as a statue of Ariadne.
Shakespeare's tragedy first performed in or around 1603, Othello was a highly regarded Moor of Venice who married Desdemona, the daughter of a Senator named Brabantia. The villain Iago leads Othello to believe his spouse unfaithful. Othello smothers Desdemona to death before learning of her innocence, after which he kills himself. The story was set to music in operas by Rossini in 1816 and again by Verdi in 1887.

In the present bust, thought to be modelled on Ira Aldridge, the first black actor to play the part, the distraught Othello clutches Desdemona's handkerchief, a single tear trickling down his face.