Madonna and Child
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Authors
Stefano da Putignano
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Madonna and Child , Mary , Virgin , Jesus , Christ
Alternative Title
Abstract
This Madonna enthroned has the Christ Child standing on her lap and flying angels holding a crown above her head. The sculptural group is located inside the Chapel of San Giovanni Battista in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Monopoli, but it was originally placed in an earlier church with the same dedication located on the same site. A small amount of polychromy is still visible in the red of the cloth wrapped around the angels, the blue on Mary's mantle, and in crevices throughout the sculpture. The much better conserved polychromy on the same artist's Madonna and Child in the Chiesa Matrice in Turi helps us imagine the lively and majestic effect the sculpture would have originally had. Here, the mother and child are endowed a similarly weighty presence, but as in Turi, the emphasis is on presenting Baby Jesus to adorers, rather than any realistic sense of support from the Madonna's lap. Unlike the Turi version, the child is fully nude and stands. The inlaid glass eyes were added when the group was relocated to the new church (built in 1740). The faces may have been recarved at that time, as they a bit rigid and expressionless, not characteristic of Stefano's style. Although there is some debate over the sculptural group's attribution, its resemblance to the Madonna of Cisternino of Cassamassima in Matera indicates that this is the work of Stefano da Putignano. Stefano da Putignano worked in the area in ca. 1505, when this statue was likely made. The angels may be by his workshop. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
San Francesco d'Assisi, Monopoli
Citation
Clara Gelao, Stefano da Putignano ""virtuoso"" scultore del rinascimento (Bari: Mario Adda, 2020), 88; Clara Gelao, Stefano da Putignano nella scultura pugliese del rinascimento (Fasano di Brindisi: Schena, 1990), cat. 18, pp. 86-7.