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Madonna and Child

Madonna and Child

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Benedetto da Maiano (workshop of)

Benedetto di Leonardo d’Antonio, called Benedetto da Maiano after his birthplace, was among the most talented sculptors of his generation. He belonged to the most prominent family of woodworkers and sculptors in Florence whose large and active workshop produced works in high demand throughout Italy. This circular composition is called a tondo, a format that was popular in Florence during the fifteenth century both in painting, sculpture, and glazed terracotta. In this marble relief version, the Virgin tenderly holds the Christ Child whose right hand is extended in a blessing gesture. An ornamental border of cherubim and stars is delicately carved in low relief, creating an effect of receding space behind the central figures carved in high relief. The naturalism of the forms is an example of the Renaissance assimilation of ideals taken from classical sculpture. In addition, the use of the tondo relief has precedents in antiquity, as can be seen in the funerary relief portrait on the sarcophagus on view in Gallery I. Similarly, this Madonna and Child composition derives directly from a tomb monument executed by Benedetto da Maiano in 1491–1497 for Filippo Strozzi in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In isolation, however, tondi like this one did not serve a commemorative function, but rather were used as devotional images in both domestic and public settings of Renaissance buildings.
Artist
Benedetto da Maiano (workshop of)
(Italian, 1442 - 1497)
Title
Madonna and Child
Date
late 1490s
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
diam: 26 5/8 in. overall
Credit
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Accession No.
61.4.12
Classification
Sculpture
Geography
Italy

Related

September 1961, gifted by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation (New York, NY) to the University of Wisconsin-Madison; 1967 transferred to the Elvehjem Art Center [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Olson, Roberta J.M. "The Florentine Tondo". Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. p. 155, no. 6.32
  • Lein, Edgar. "Benedetto da Maiano". Bochumer Schriften zur Kunstgeschichte, 12. Frankfurt am Main, New York: Lang, 1988. pp. 139, 140, 211
  • Middeldorf, Ulrich. "Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century". London: Phaidon Press, 1976. pp. 32-33, no. 59
  • National Gallery of Art Library. “Image Collections.” NGA Library - Image Collections. National Gallery of Art Library. Accessed September 24, 2020. https://library.nga.gov/permalink/01NGA_INST/1p5jkvq/alma991590003804896

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