De-script-ion is an exploration of the masculine agential forces that have acted to memorialise individuals throughout history. Centring on the cast of Bust of a Woman after Francesco Laurana, housed in the V&A Cast Courts, the project asks: Who do we memorialise and for what? How does the way that we speak about and describe these individuals in their materialisation differ?

The subject of Bust of a Woman is unknown, but suspected to be Ippolita Maria Sforza, often remembered as the wife of King Alfonso II of Naples, but extraordinary for her political power in the relations between Milan and Naples. Ippolita was promised to the King by her parents in October 1465, at the age of ten, and they later married when she was nineteen. She therefore lived most of her life with her husband in Naples.

Looking at a portrait bust without knowing its subject or missing key details aligns with Mark Fisher’s writings in The Weird and The Eerie. This concept involves seeing something where there should be nothing, nothing where there should be something, or encountering something different from what’s expected. The Bust of a Woman fits all of these. Its description plaque in the V&A centres on the husband, omits Ippolita’s political influence in Naples and Milan, and lacks comprehensive information about the bust, its subject, and its context. De-script-ion reverses this, highlighting overlooked aspects of Ippolita’s memorialisation in the context of the weird and the eerie.