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The bust of the English novelist Laurence Sterne (1713-68), which Nollekens worked on in Rome in 1766, follows classical models in being limited to the depiction of head and bare shoulders. Although this echoes the idealized portrait type of early Imperial Rome,, the fine modeling of the narrow face makes the portrait very lifelike. The impression is reinforced by the the dimensional treatment of the eyes. The iris is not just suggested and left blind in the eyeball, as in Houden; Nollekens hollows out the pupil except for a small point that shines in the light. This late-antique treatment was further developed by sculptors of the Baroque, and Nollekens uses it almost without exception in order to provide his bust with a lifelike expression.
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