Madonna and Child crowned by Angels with St. Dominic and St. Lawrence
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Authors
Andrea della Robbia
Date
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Image
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Keyword
Mary , angels , St. Dominic , St. Lawrence , Coronation , Savonarola
Alternative Title
Abstract
This relief sculpture is one of three glazed terracotta lunettes over the doors on the facade of a Dominican church and important destination for pilgrims because of the miraculous image contained within: the sanctuary of the Madonna della Quercia on the outskirts of Viterbo. The reliefs were created by Andrea della Robbia and his workshop in 1508-9. Documentation survives of payments made through Fra Ambrogio della Robbia, the name Andrea's son Francesco took when he became an observant Dominican friar at San Marco in Florence in the wake of the execution of Savonarola. Andrea and his family remained supporters of Savonarola even when it was dangerous to do so -- Andrea signed a petition supporting Savonarola after his arrest, and Andrea's sons (including Fra Ambrogio) and daughter joined the strictly austere Observant Dominican monasteries and nunneries. Some scholars have seen in the heavily draped, simple, massive figures of works such as this one an affinity to the art produced by painters who followed Savonarola, such as Fra Bartolommeo, and thus a Savonarolan style. But Savonarola's own attitude to art was complex -- he commissioned religious art and was publicly and privately devoted to images, but he also held great bonfires of the vanities, destroying paintings and sculptures along with make-up, wigs, and jewelry. Therefore it is hard to say what a Savonarolan style of art would be. The oak branches behind the Madonna and Child refer to the miraculous image placed in an oak tree on this site. The head of St. Dominic, on the right, has been replaced. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Santa Maria della Quercia, Viterbo
Citation
Giancarlo Gentilini, I Della Robbia: La scultura invetriata del rinascimento (Cantini, 1992), vol. I: pp. 262-3; https://www.madonnadellaquercia.it/lunandrearobbia.htm