National Gallery of Art

Overview

This work reflects the relief style of the great Florentine sculptor Donatello, whose approach to statuary is glimpsed in the terra-cotta Madonna and Child of c. 1425. In both marble and bronze, Donatello had devised ways of using very low, flat relief to suggest figures in a deep space. The able and intelligent follower of Donatello who produced this small image has suggested an architectural setting receding into space behind the Madonna and Child.

The figures appear in a close-up view on a balcony or parapet. The child stands on the ledge in a lively pose that combines a forward shift of his weight with a twist backward to cling to his mother. With delicate modulations of his wax model, the sculptor varied the textures of crumpled cloth, fine fringe, and feathery hair, set against powerful architecture. The gestures of the Madonna's and Child's hands, paralleling each other with choreographic grace, recall those of Donatello's statues at the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua. Here the figures seem to reach out in greeting toward acclaiming worshippers. One scholar has named the composition "The Madonna of Welcome."

Marks and Labels

Reverse bears traces of two or three digits of former inventory number in white paint (Timbal?), 47 in red paint (Dreyfus), and remnants of a 7 in yellow paint (Ricci 1931).

Provenance

Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris; his estate; purchased 1930 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 1945 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1957 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1985

Italian Renaissance Sculpture in the Time of Donatello, Detroit Institute of Arts; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; Forte Belvedere, Florence, Italy, 1985-1986, no. 33 (English catalogue), no. 51 (Italian catalogue), repro.

2004

From Filippo Lippi to Piero della Francesca: Fra Carnavale and the Making of a Renaissance Master, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004-2005, no. 12, repro.

2006

Mantegna e Padova, 1445-1460, Musei Civici agli Eremitani, Padua, 2006-2007, no. 47, repro.

Bibliography

1886

Molinier, Émile. Les Bronzes de la Renaissance. Les Plaquettes; Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols. Paris, 1886: 1:34, no. 64, as by Donatello.

1908

Migeon, Gaston. “La collection de M. Gustave Dreyfus, III: Petits bronzes—Bas-reliefs.” Les Arts 73 (Jan. 1908): 22, repro. 17, as attributed to Desiderio da Settignano.

1925

Vaudoyer, Jean-Louis. “La collection Gustave Dreyfus.” L’Amour de l’Art 6, no. 7 (1925): 256-257 (as by Desiderio [?]), repro. 254 as by Donatello.

1931

Ricci, Seymour de. The Gustave Dreyfus Collection. Reliefs and Plaquettes. Oxford, 1931: 10, no. 7, pl. 5, as Donatello.

1951

Renaissance Bronzes: Statuettes, Reliefs and Plaquettes, Medals and Coins from the Kress Collection. Introduction by Perry B. Cott. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 141, repro. 55, as Madonna and Child, Attributed to Donatello.

1964

Pope-Hennessy, John, assisted by Ronald Lightbown. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. 3 vols. London, 1964: 1:90-91, no. 72, note.

1965

Pope-Hennessy, John W. Renaissance Bronzes from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Reliefs, Plaquettes, Statuettes, Utensils and Mortars. London, 1965: 21-22, no. 60, fig. 7, as style of Donatello.

1983

Negri Arnoldi, Francesco. “Bellano e Bertoldo nella bottega di Donatello.” Prospettiva 33–36 (1983-1984): 99, fig. 14, as after Donatello (Bertoldo?).

1983

Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 14-15, no. 6, as Paduan follower of Donatello.

1986

Avery, Charles. L’invenzione dell’umano: introduzione a Donatello. Florence, 1986: 52, fig. 44, as follower of Donatello.

1989

Avery, Charles. “Donatello’s Madonnas Revisited.” In Donatello-Studien. Ed. Monika Cämmerer. Munich, 1989: 226–228, fig. 17.

1989

Vertova, Louisa. “La mano tesa: contributo alle ipotesi di ricostruzione dell’Altare di Donatello a Padova.” In Donatello-Studien. Ed. Monika Cämmerer. Munich, 1989: 209–218, esp. 216, note 10.

1990

Kokole, Stanko. “Notes on the sculptural sources for Giorgio Schiavone’s Madonna in London.” Venezia Arti 4 (1990): 50–56, fig. 3, as style of Donatello.

1991

Avery, Charles. Donatello: catalogo completo delle opere. Florence, 1991: 50, no. 31, repro.

1992

National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 285, repro.

1994

Avery, Charles. Donatello: An Introduction. New York, 1994: 45–46, 121.

1998

Chapman, Hugo, ed. Padua in the 1450s: Marco Zoppo and his Contemporaries. Exh. cat. British Museum, London, 1998: 20 fig. 9, 22, 41 n. 28

2006

Lewis, Douglas. "Mantova e la produzione di placchette nel XV secolo." In Rossi, Francesco, ed. Placchette e rilievi di bronzo nell'età del Mantegna. Exh. cat. Museo della Città di Palazzo San Sebastiano, Mantua, 2006: 7.

2008

Bormand, Marc. La Vierge et l'Enfant: Deux reliefs en terre cuite. Paris, 2008: 13, 40 fig. 16.

2013

Leino, Marika. Fashion, Devotion and Contemplation: The Status and Functions of Italian Renaissance Plaquettes. Oxford, 2013: 187-188, fig. 117.

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