Madonna and Child
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Authors
Workshop of Andrea della Robbia
Date
Type
image
Language
Keyword
Tondo , Madonna , Christ Child , Blessing
Alternative Title
Abstract
This glazed terracotta tondo of the Virgin and Child is attributed to the workshop of Andrea della Robbia and dates to around 1490-95. It was donated to the monastery of La Verna in 1929 by Countess Bastoggi of Valenzano (Arezzo), and is currently installed on the back wall of the Chapel of the Stigmata, directly opposite Andrea della Robbia's Crucifixion altarpiece. Marquand reports that it was formerly in the Casa degli Albizzini in Città di Castello. The central composition - in which the Virgin is seated and supports a standing Christ Child, with his arm raised in a gesture of blessing - was probably taken from a mold, as it survives in at least 10 similar variations. These versions include sculptures in which the figures are set against a rectangular ground, others in which they appear inside a tondo, and one fascinating example in Arezzo in which the group appears inside a circular frame in the center of the predella of an altarpiece, venerated by members of a confraternity who kneel in adoration at either side of the image. All of these objects are usually attributed to Andrea della Robbia and his workshop, although it is still unclear how many were made from the same mold and over the course of how many years they were produced. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Chapel of the Stigmata, La Verna
Citation
Allan Marquand, Andrea della Robbia and His Atelier (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1922), I: 100 and II: 69-71; Francesca de Luca, catalogue entry II.11 in Giancarlo Gentilini, ed., I Della Robbia e l'arte nuova della scultura invetriata (Florence: Giunti, 1998), 198-99; Piero Bargellini and P. Pacifico Brun, Le Robbiane della Verna (Genoa: Marconi, 2009), 66-67.