Returning to Donatello's ‘Madonnas'

Lea De Giorgio
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
Lea De Giorgio Returning to Donatello's 'Madonnas'
read abstract » 26-47
Roberto Bartalini Duccio: Two Unpublished Documentary Fragments (With a Note on the Co-called 'Gualino Madonna')
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
Stefano L'Occaso A Painted Vestment by Filippo Lippi for Pope Nicholas V
read abstract » 61-67
Renzo Fontana Enea Vico as a Model for Domenico Brusasorzi in Palazzo Chiericati at Vicenza
read abstract » 68-71
Mattia Barana Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350. The Exhibitions in New York and London
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