In recent decades, studies on Donatello's 'Madonnas' have enjoyed remarkable success thanks to new discoveries. Alongside the examples established in the master's catalogue, there exist others which – although having been referred to in literature on the sculptor at various times and in different ways – have never been permanently included in it. Such is the case of a damaged stucco relief now set into the inner facade of the church of Sant'Andrea in Siena; of a lost terracotta once owned by the Lyon collector Édouard Aynard (1837-1913), later part of the collection of Thomas Fortune Ryan (1851-1928); and of a massive limestone relief purchased in Mantua in 1867 by Baron Jean-Charles Davillier (1823-1883), today displayed in the Musée du Louvre. On the basis of stylistic evidence, this study proposes the attribution to Donatello of the first relief – previously considered a copy after a lost original by the master – and of the third; and reaffirms the autograph status of the second, first advanced by Wilhelm Bode. For each work, an attempt is made to define its chronology within the corpus of Donatello's Madonnas: the execution of the first is placed between 1425 and 1429; that of the second and third somewhat later, during the sculptor's Paduan period (respectively 1443-1445 and 1445-1450). Finally, taking into account the unusual material appearance and the information about its provenance, the Louvre relief is tentatively connected with a documentary record: a letter sent by Ludovico Gonzaga to his wife Barbara of Brandenburg, in which the marquis mentions a 'Madonna' in tufo (tufa stone) sent by Donatello from Padua to the Mantuan court.
Index
Laura Cavazzini e Vera Cutolo
Along the Aurelia: a New Exponent of Gothic Sculpture in the Lands of Marble
read abstract » pp. 3-25
read abstract » pp. 3-25
Roberto Bartalini
Duccio: Two Unpublished Documentary Fragments (With a Note on the Co-called 'Gualino Madonna')
read abstract » 48-51
read abstract » 48-51
Emanuele Zappasodi
“Pinxit Bartholomeus Caporalis de Perusio.” Another Piece of the Pala dei Cacciatori of Castiglione del Lago
read abstract » 52-60
read abstract » 52-60
Renzo Fontana
Enea Vico as a Model for Domenico Brusasorzi in Palazzo Chiericati at Vicenza
read abstract » 68-71
read abstract » 68-71
Mattia Barana
Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350. The Exhibitions in New York and London
read abstract » 72-75
read abstract » 72-75
Alessandro Bagnoli
The Fourteenth-century Frescoes of the Agazzari Chapel in the Church of San Martino in Siena and the History of Their Conservation
read abstract » 76-94
read abstract » 76-94
