Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Maria kniet nach links gewendet und verehrt das Kind, das zu ihren Füssen liegend von Engeln gehalten wird. Der Rahmen ist in kräftigen Farben mit einem Cherubimfries und einer Fruchtgirlande geschmückt. – Die Figuren sind weiß auf blauem Grund dargestellt mit reicher Vergoldung an dem Gewand der Maria und des Engels.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Sangallo gestaltet das Thema der Muttergottes mit dem Christuskind kompositionell in neuartiger Weise. Der an Gestalten Michelangelos erinnernden, in sich ruhenden Sitzfigur steht kontrastreich der fast vollplastische Christusknabe gegenüber. Dem Bildhauer gelingt es, die beiden unterschiedlich großen Figuren über die Gesten und die Gewandführung spannungsvoll zusammenzufassen. Dabei verabschiedet er sich von traditionellen Bildformen, in denen sich die Muttergottes zumeist inniglich ihrem Kinde zuwendet. Ungewöhnlich ist auch die Detailgestaltung, etwa des kleinteilig gefältelten Gewandes. Der Künstler sucht offensichtlich formale Schwierigkeiten, um an ihrer Überwindung seine virtuosen Fähigkeiten zu beweisen.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Florentine artist Virgin and Child, known as the Madonna with the Rose Painted papier-mâché 81 x 65 cm Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 1716. Bode-Museum, storage. Provenance Florence, Stefano Bardini (1890); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1890-1904); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1904-1939); Berlin, storage (1939-1945); Soviet Union, secret storage (1945/46-1958); East Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (1958-1990); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (1990-present). Acquisition Bought from the dealer Stefano Bardini in Florence in 1890, together with Inv. SKS 1730 and Inv. SKS 1734, for 8,900 Mark (see the acquisition file n°1322/90 in the Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin). Restorations 1958, 1978-79. Exhibition Schätze der Weltkultur von der Sowjetunion gerettet, East Berlin, National-Galerie and Pergamonmuseum, 1958, cat. D 51. Other Versions • Bergamo, Accademia Carrara. Provenance: Giovanni Morelli. Photo Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz: n°49459. • London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. 8376-1863. Marble, 79.2 x 64.8 cm. • Florence, villa La Pietra, Acton collection. Painted stucco. Provenance: Stefano Bardini. Photo Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz: n°224659. • Formerly Florence, Davanzati Palace. Its sale, 1916, lot 100. Description Christ is seated on a cushion, his body twisted between his mother and a hypothetical beholder to the right. The Virgin also looks in this direction, while holding her Child with the right hand and a rose with the other one. Christ reaches for the rose with the left hand, while blessing the viewer with the other. The papier-mâché relief has preserved its polychromy, with a gilt background and an integrated frame with an architectural motif. In 1890, this relief known as the Madonna with the Rose was bought for the Berlin Museums by Wilhelm Bode from Stefano Bardini in Florence as by the “school of Donatello”. Bode connected the work with a marble relief acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1863, which he attributed to Donatello himself – somewhat enlarging Donatello’s paternity to the Berlin relief (see Bode 1894). The authenticity of the London marble has been questioned by many art historians (from Balcarres 1903 to Negri Arnoldi 1970). While an inscription with the date 1550 on the reverse has been taken to mean that that relief was created in the 16th century (see Maclagan and Longhurst 1932), the absence of the rose proves that this is not the original model (Pope-Hennessy 1964). Many things in the composition evoke motifs by Donatello, such as the way the Virgin is seen, cut at the waist to appear closer to the viewer, or the dynamic gestures of the hands or even the blessing gesture of the Child (see the Virgin and Child Inv. SKS 54, but even more a terracotta relief in the Musée du Louvre, Inv. RF 353). However, the quality of the present cartapesta and the marble from London are not sufficient to give these works to Donatello. The name of Andrea Guardi, a minor follower of Donatello in Pisa, has been tentatively suggested by Schottmüller 1933. Literature Bode 1894 Wilhelm Bode, Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas, Munich, F. Bruckmann, 1894, II, pl. 69: Donatello (caption of the plate). Bode 1902 Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1902, pp. 102-103, 104 fig. 38: after Donatello; the marble in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Inv. 8376-1863) is incorrectly seen as a fake but was made in Donatello’s workshop. Balcarres 1903 Lord Balcarres, Donatello, London and New York, Duckworth & Co. and Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903, p. 183: said to be a copy in stucco after a lost original by Donatello; the version in the Victoria and Albert Museum is a forgery. Mentions another version in the Morelli collection, Bergamo. Schubring 1907 Paul Schubring, Donatello. Des Meisters Werke in 277 Abbildungen, Stuttgart and Leipzig, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1907, pp. 85, 198: Donatello; connected to the marble in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is considered a forgery. Schottmüller 1913 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, pp. 17-18 cat. 35: after the original by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, wrongly considered a forgery. Bode 1921 Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1921, p. 99 fig. 54: Donatello. Wulff 1922 Oskar Wulff, Donatello, Leipzig, E. A. Seemann, 1922, p. 7, fig. 12. Colasanti 1931 Arduino Colasanti, Donatello, Rome, Valori Plastici, s. d., pl. CCXL French trans., Paris, Crès, 1931, p. 89, pl. CCXXXV: Donatello, the authenticity of the marble in the Victoria and Albert Museum is problematic. Maclagan and Longhurst 1932 Eric Maclagan and Margaret H. Longhurst, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932, p. 25: an inscription on the reverse side of the marble in the Victoria and Albert Museum was found, with the date 30 September 1550; this dates the piece. Schottmüller 1933 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barock. Erster Band. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz, Ton und Wachs, Zweite Auflage, Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1933, p. 20: after Andrea Guardi?; Bode thought the work derived from a terracotta sketch by Donatello; the relief in the Victoria and Albert Museum is probably by Andrea di Francesco Guardi, and the Berlin relief is a derivation from it. Middeldorf 1938 Ulrich Middeldorf, review of Schottmüller 1933, Rivista d’arte, XX, 1938 now in: idem, Raccolta di scritti that is Collected Writings, I. 1924-1938, Florence, SPES, 1979-80, p. 379: the quality of the work is too high for it to be by Andrea Guardi. Rezio Buscaroli, L’arte di Donatello, Florence, Monsalvato, 1942, p. 152 cat. 147: mediocre follower of Donatello. Schätze der Weltkultur… 1958 Schätze der Weltkultur von der Sowjetunion gerettet, exh. cat. (East Berlin, National-Galerie and Pergamonmuseum, 1958), East Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1958, cat. D 51: after Andrea Guardi. Pope-Hennessy 1964 John Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1964, I, pp. 97-98: style of Donatello; the absence of a flower in the London version suggests that it was not the prototype for the Berlin version. Negri Arnoldi 1970 Francesco Negri Arnoldi, “Scultura italiana al Victoria and Albert Museum. II”, Commentari, XXI, 1970, pp. 206-207: forgery. Restaurierte Kunstwerke… 1980 Restaurierte Kunstwerke in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, exh. cat. (Berlin, n. pl., April-June 1980), n. pl. East Berlin, Ministerium für Kultur, 1980, pp. 147-148 cat. 58: restored in 1978-79. Ehlich 1987 Volker Ehlich, “Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungsmethoden. Grundlagen der Restaurierung im Bestand der Skulpturensammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin”, Neue Museums Kunde, XXX, n°3, 1987, pp. 220-222: about the 1978-79 restoration. Osservatorio delle arti 1988 Osservatorio delle arti (Rivista semestriale dell’Accademia Carrara di Bergamo), 1988, pp. 28-29: Donatello. Jolly 1998 Anna Jolly, Madonnas by Donatello and his Circle, Frankfurt am Main et al., Peter Lang, 1998, p. 184 cat. 77.1: circle of Donatello and Michelozzo, ca. 1430s; “the best surviving cast of the series”. Neville Rowley (20 May 2016)

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Das Relief wurde für das Bogenfeld des Eingangsportals einer von Michelozzo für die Medici-Familie errichteten Kapelle des Castellos von Trebbio geschaffen. Das traurig-ernste Gesicht der Maria ist von klassischer Schönheit. In ihm vereinigen sich das Idealbild einer italienischen Frau der Renaissance und die Vorstellungen von der Gleichsetzung der Gottesmutter mit antiken Göttinnen. Auf den göttlichen Status der, wie das Kind, ohne Nimbus dargestellten Madonna verweisen die Engelsfiguren zu ihren Seiten. Luca della Robbia nutzte als erster die Zinnglasur der Gefäßkeramik in modifizierter Form für die Herstellung wetterbeständiger Tonbildwerke. Die von ihm gewählte kühle Farbgebung, weiße Figuren vor blauem Hintergrund, erhielt dadurch eine starke Leuchtkraft.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

(English version below) Die Pazzi Madonna, die vermutlich aus dem Palast der Pazzi-Familie in Florenz stammt, ist eines der größten Meisterwerke von Donatello und ein Sinnbild der Bildhauerei der Frührenaissance. Sie verkörpert den Wunsch der Künstler jener Zeit, die Realität lebensecht darzustellen. Die Jungfrau und das Kind werden in Lebensgröße dargestellt, eingerahmt in eine Nische, die den Regeln der Linearperspektive folgt: Die Fluchtlinien der Nische laufen in einem einzigen Punkt zusammen. Dadurch scheinen beide Figuren in die Welt des Betrachters einzutreten. Die Beziehung der Mutter zu ihrem Kind ist ein anderer wichtiger Aspekt des Werkes: Maria legt ihre Stirn auf die des Jesuskindes, mit einer Geste, die sowohl als zart als auch als leidenschaftlich interpretiert werden kann. Eines betrübt sie: Sie weiß, dass ihr Sohn zu früh sterben wird. The Pazzi Madonna, said to come from the palace of the Pazzi family in Florence, is one of the greatest masterpieces of Donatello and an emblem of early Renaissance sculpture. It embodies the aspiration of artists of the time at representing a convincing reality. The Virgin and Child are represented life-size and framed in a niche which follows the rules of linear perspective: the receding lines of the niche converge in one single point. As a result, both figures seem to emerge into the world of the spectator. The relationship of the mother with her child is another key aspect of the work: Mary is laying her forehead on Jesus’, in a gesture that can be read as both tender and violent. She is sad for one reason: she knows that her son will die too soon. -- Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi Florence, ca. 1386-1466 Virgin and Child (called the Pazzi Madonna) ca. 1420 Marble 91 x 87 x 10 cm The frame is not original. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 51. Bode-Museum, on view. Provenance Florence, Pazzi Palace, courtyard (?); Florence, Raffaello Lamponi Leopardi (1886); Florence, Stefano Bardini (1886); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1886-1904); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1904-39); Berlin, storage (1939-45); Merkers, storage (1945); Wiesbaden, Central Collecting Point (1945-56); West Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Museum Dahlem (1956-97); Berlin, storage (1997-2006); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (since 2006). Acquisition Bought from the dealer Stefano Bardini in 1886; the inventory book of the Bode-Museum mentions the price as 20,000 Mark. The acquisition file of the Berlin Museum (1202/86) is missing from the Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. The acquisition file is still preserved in the Bardini Archive, Florence: Polo Museale fiorentino, Archivio Stefano Bardini, CORR.I.B.1: bill of the 14 February 1886 (“1 Madonna di Casa Pazzi dal Donatello Lire 25.000”). Restorations 1967; 1979; 2009. Exhibitions John Flaxman and the Renaissance. A Master of Neo-Classicism in Dialogue with Masaccio and Donatello, Berlin, Bode-Museum, 9 April-12 July 2009, cat. 10. La primavera del Rinascimento. La scultura e le arti a Firenze 1400-1460, Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 23 March-18 August 2013, cat. VIII. 5 / Le Printemps de la Renaissance. La sculpture et les arts à Florence 1400-1460, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 26 September 2013-6 January 2014, cat. VIII. 5. Other versions • Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Inv. NM 11935. Painted stucco, diameter: 70 cm, framed in the style of the Della Robbia. • Bologna, Chiesa della Certosa. Stucco. • Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum. • Cambridge (Mass.), Fogg Art Museum. • Castrocaro Terme, chiesa dei Santi Niccolò e Francesco. • Dovadola, private collection. 71 x 52 x 4 cm. • Florence, Conservatorio delle Signore Montalve alla Quiete. • Florence, Convento della Calza. • London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. A.51-1935. Painted stucco, 50.8 x 37.5 cm. • New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 22.16.3. Stucco and colored glass, 114.3 x 71.1 cm. From the collection of James Stillman, gift of Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, 1922. • Paris, Musée du Louvre, Inv. RF 744. Painted and gilt stucco, 75 x 54.5 cm. • Prague, National Gallery, Inv. P379. Painted stucco, 76 x 71 cm. • Strasbourg, Musée des Beaux-Arts. Stucco. • Formerly Berlin, Adolf von Beckerath. His sale, 1916, lot 68. • Formerly New York, Sotheby’s (sale 26 January 2012, lot. 328: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-old-master-paintings-n08825/lot.328.html). Painted and gilt stucco. Height: 118.7 cm. Provenance: Stefano Bardini, Florence; Catalina von Pannwitz, Berlin; and Amsterdam, acquired from the above in 1913. • Formerly Paris, Christie’s (sale 23 June 2014, lot 42). Painted and gilt stucco. Height: 73 cm (without frame: 64.5 cm). Provenance: Florence, Palazzo Davanzati (sale New York 1916, lot. 706 as by Donatello); William Boyce Thompson, Yonkers, New York; sale New York, Christie’s, 11 January 1994, lot 12. Comment Known since its acquisition by the Berlin Museums in 1886 as the Pazzi Madonna, this work has almost always been celebrated as one of the greatest masterpieces by Donatello. In his standard monograph on Donatello, Janson 1957 excluded from the artist’s oeuvre almost all the representations of the Virgin and Child that had been attributed to him in the past except for this one and two other. Famous as it is, the work has not been the subject of an in-depth exegesis: the composition is indeed very simple, with the Virgin holding her child in her arms, and touching his forehead with her own face – to the point that the profile of her nose covers his. This gesture primarily explains the success of such a work, multiplied in a number of copies and variants. The artist underlines the mixed feelings that the Virgin Mary was thought to have had: tenderness towards her son and sadness about his sacrifice to come. Unlike many Madonnas by Donatello, the general composition is statuesque and not dynamic, an impression conferred by the drapery of the Virgin’s mantle as well as by the Child’s pose. Held by the two hands of the Virgin, Jesus grasps his mother’s veil and puts his left foot on the edge of the niche. The quality and coherence of the relief with the style of Donatello makes the attribution certain and has almost invariably been accepted as such in the art historical literature. Only Goldscheider 1947 labelled as by the “School of Donatello”, which is contradicted by the highest quality of the relief and its similarities with documented works by Donatello; while Strom 1982 argued for a 16th-century copy after a lost original by Donatello, partly followed by Bennett and Wilkins 1984, p. 229 note 30; the argumentation of Strom – based on the absence of haloes and on the supposed oversize – can be invalidated by many examples, such as the Orlandini Madonna in the Berlin Museums (see Inv. SKS 55). The figures are set in a niche constructed according to the laws of central perspective (correctly calculated for the upper and lateral sides), which adds much to the spatial perception of the relief. As the work is generally dated ca. 1420, this niche has often been interpreted as a sign of modernity: linear perspective was invented in Florence around 1415 by Filippo Brunelleschi, and Donatello made his first use of the technique in 1417, in the predella of the St George niche carved for the church of Orsanmichele. The patron of the Pazzi Madonna must have been interested in “modern” art, i.e. the revival of Antiquity that was fascinating the Florentine artists of the early 15th century. The monochrome marble used for the relief (differing, in this period, from the more frequent use of color in sculpture) is another hint in this direction (see Motture 2004; for the fact that Donatello possibly played on the natural color of the marble block, see Fehrenbach 2011). Significantly, of the many preserved derivations from the Pazzi Madonna, the majority were used for popular devotion and suppressed the perspective niche while adding naturalistic colors. The strong foreshortening of the niche is a probable sign that the work was placed in an elevated position on a wall (Bode 1886; Pope-Hennessy 1976 ed. 1980 has especially investigated the best point of vision for the photographer; see also Munman 1985). Rosenauer 1993 suggested an original provenance from a street tabernacle; this seems rather unlikely as the marble surface is very little abraded, even though the marble slab has been broken in some ten pieces (Lista 2003 asserted that the Madonna was broken in 14 pieces during its transfer to Berlin in 1886, thus creating a scandal in Italy; I have not found indications in that sense, either in the following correspondence between Bardini and Bode or in the contemporary press). Cavallucci 1886 was the first to publish the relief, which was said to be in possession of Count Lamponi Leopardi and to come from the garden of the Pazzi Palace, which was partly destroyed during the 1870s to make way for the building of the Poste Italiane. Cavallucci connected this alleged provenance with a 1677 edition of a Florentine guide, where one can read the following description: Casa di Francesco Pazzi nella quale è una bellissima Vergine di Basso rilievo in marmo di mano di Donatello: è il bambino Giesù a sedere sopra un Guanciale, e con la destra la Vergine il sostiene mentr’egli con la sinistra alzata regge i lembi del velo che dal capo della Madonna pendono; E’ vaga in ogni sua parte, ed i panneggiamenti sono bellissimi, esprime la Vergine l’affetto verso il figliuolo, con grande arte, ed è tale, che nelle divise seguite tra Pazzino, la prese Alessandro Padre di Francesco per sc. 500. Secondo la stima che ne fu fatta. (In the house of Francesco Pazzi there is a beautiful marble Madonna in low relief by Donatello; the Christ Child, seated upon a cushion, is supported by the Virgin’s right hand, while he, with his raised left hand, holds the veil that hangs from her head. It is charming in every part, the draperies are most beautiful, and the Virgin’s tenderness toward her son is expressed with great art and is such, that in the following succession, Alessandro, the father of Francesco, bought it for 500 scudi according to the valuation that was made.) Francesco Bocchi, Le bellezze della città di Firenze, Giovanni Chellini ed., Florence, Gugliantini, 1677, pp. 369-370. Since Schmarsow 1889, however, many art historians have challenged the identification of the described work with the present relief, as the text explicitly mentions that the Child is seated upon a cushion and is supported by the Virgin’s right hand. Even if there exists a possibility that the work comes from the Pazzi Palace (as Cinelli may well have had lapses of memory; or as they could have been more than one Madonna by Donatello in the Pazzi Palace, see Schottmüller 1933), this provenance must remain hypothetical until new evidence is found. The other suggested provenances have remained inconclusive: from the Medici palace for Bertaux 1910 and Colasanti 1931; from Antonio de’ Nobili or Lelio Torelli for Janson 1957, based on descriptions by Giorgio Vasari. The name of the Pazzi Madonna has become too famous to be changed (see Avery 1986, who proposed to call the relief the Berlin Dahlem Madonna – a denomination that became obsolete after the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the reintegration of the relief on the Museums Island). The work has been connected with 14th-century sources (such as the Maestà in the Museo di arte sacra in Massa Maritima by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, as suggested by Rosenauer 1993; but see also Kauffmann 1935) or even with Attic steles dating from the 4th and 5th century B.C. (Rosenauer 1993). However “Greek” her profile may appear at first sight, the Pazzi Madonna has no direct precedent (the right foot of the Christ, leaving the sole visible, is a motif of Byzantine origin). Bode 1886 proposed to date the relief around 1420, an opinion that has been widely followed by the critics. The relative weakness of the foreshortening of the left hand of the Virgin (first pointed out by Schottmüller 1904) has always been seen as a mark of youth. This hand has been compared to the one of the Blessing God, carved ca. 1417 by Donatello on top of the St George niche in Orsanmichele (Lányi 1935; Kauffmann 1935); to the hand of the Sibyl documented in 1422 for the decoration of the Porta della Mandorla outside the Florentine Cathedral (Buscaroli 1942); and to the left hand of Herod in the bronze relief made by Donatello for the baptistery font in Siena between 1423 and 1427 (Pope-Hennessy 1996). Comparisons have also been made with a plaquette by Donatello where the Virgin is equally seen in profile (Pope-Hennessy 1964, ed. 1980; on this typology, see Inv. SKS 1028). One may add to these comparisons the forshortened hand of the Bishop in one of the reliefs of the Fondazione Romano in Florence, whose attribution to Donatello is not universally accepted. The dating of the work varies according to these comparisons, even if the more widely accepted is ca. 1422 (together with the Sibyl). The profile of Isaac in the group of Abraham and Isaac made in 1421 for the Campanile of the Florentine Cathedral (and now in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo) makes it more reasonable to keep the dating of ca. 1420. Besides the Orlandini Madonna in the Berlin Museums, possibly made by Michelozzo ca. 1426 (see Inv. SKS 55), an early reflection of the Pazzi Madonna can be found in a relief by Jacopo della Quercia: the Flight to Egypt carved between 1425 and 1434 for the façade of the San Petronio Cathedral, in Bologna (Jacopo della Quercia… 1975). Two images of the Virgin and Child in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, the Madonna della Gherardesca and the Goretti Miniati Madonna, are also early echoes from the relief (see Natali 1980; and Gentilini 1985). The work has also impressed many Florentine painters: the foreshortening of the left hand of the Virgin seems to have been in the mind of Masaccio when he drew the right hand of St Jerome in a panel with the Sts Jerome and John the Baptist now in the National Gallery, London (painted for Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, ca. 1428; for other references to Masaccio, see Janson 1957; and Berti 1966). Pope-Hennessy 1993 compared the foreshortening of the niche to the one of the Carnesecchi Tabernacle (also in the National Gallery, London) painted by Domenico Veneziano ca. 1435, while Christiansen 2004 more accurately related it to the trompe-l’oeil frame of some paintings of the 1440s, such as Filippo Lippi’s Double portrait at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Even if undirect, these echoes suggest that, even if the work may not have been originally in the Pazzi Palace, it was easily accessible by Florentine artists, not simply through casts (Strehlke 2004): only a masterpiece could have prompted such an artistic answer. Literature Wilhelm Bode, “Neue Erwerbungen für die Abteilung der christlichen Plastik in den königlichen Museen”, Jahrbuch der Königlich preußischen Kunstsammlungen, VII, 1886, pp. 203-206: Donatello, ca. 1420, made for the Pazzi family. Other works made for the Pazzi: a fountain in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello and the decoration of the Pazzi Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence. Details the acquisition and negotiation of the piece; the relief was probably made to be placed above a door. Compared to the Orlandini Madonna (Inv. SKS 55), which is attributed to a pupil of Donatello. C. J. Cavallucci, Vita ed opere di Donatello, Naples, Milan and Pisa, Ulrico Hoepli, 1886, pp. 32-33: Donatello, early work close to the Cavalcanti Annunciation in Santa Croce, Florence. Engraved reproduction made after a photograph. Said to come from the garden of the Pazzi Palace (where it was mentioned in the 1677 edition of Le bellezze della città di Fiorenza, written by Francesco Bocchi and revised by Giovanni Cinelli), before the palace was destroyed to build the National Bank. Belongs to Count Lamponi Leopardi. Wilhelm Bode, Italienische Bildhauer der Renaissance. Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Plastik und Malerei auf Grund der Bildwerke und Gemälde in den Königl. Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, W. Speemann, 1887, pp. 16, 47-48. Hans Semper, Donatellos Leben und Werke, Innsbruck, Wagnerischen Universitäts-Buchhandlung, 1887, p. 61: Donatello; described as in sandstone; Count Lamponi-Leopardi is mentioned as the previous owner. Gaetano Milanesi, Catalogo delle opere di Donatello e bibliografia degli autori che ne hanno scritto, Firenze, Arte della Stampa, 1887, p. 64. Hugo von Tschudi, Donatello e la critica moderna, Turin et al., Fratelli Bocca, 1887 (1st ed.: Rivista storica Italiana, IV, n° 2, 1887), p. 33: Donatello, before or ca. 1430. Wilhelm Bode and Hugo von Tschudi, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der Christlichen Epoche, Berlin, W. Spemann, 1888, pp. 15-16 cat. 39, pl. X. August Schmarsow, review of Bode and Tschudi 1888, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XII, 1889, p. 206: does not correspond to the description of Bocchi-Cinelli. Wilhelm Bode, Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas, Munich, F. Bruckmann, 1894, II, pl. 68: Donatello. Giovanni Mini, La Romagna Toscana. Notizie geografiche storiche industriali e commerciali, Castrocaro, Barboni, 1901, reprint 1978, p. 55: presents the version of Castrocaro Terme. Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1902, pp. 19, 98-100. Lord Balcarres, Donatello, London and New York, Duckworth & Co. and Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903, p. 181: Donatello. Alfred Gotthold Meyer, Donatello, Bielefeld and Leipzig, Delhagen and Klafing, 1903, pp. 60, 115. Paul Schubring, Urbano da Cortona. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Schule Donatellos und der Sieneser Plastik im Quattrocento, Strasburg, Heitz, 1903, pp. 70, 89. Frida Schottmüller, Donatello. Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis seiner künstlerischen Tat, Munich, Bruckmann, 1904, pp. 25, 36 note 3, 37 note 2, pp. 39, 99-100, 129: Donatello, early 1420s, youthful awkwardness of the left hand. Paul Schubring, “Italienische Plastik”, Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, new series, XVI, 1905, p. 56. Paul Schubring, Donatello. Des Meisters Werke in 277 Abbildungen, Stuttgart and Leipzig, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1907, pp. 83, 198. Wilhelm Bode, “Ein Blick in Donatellos Werkstatt”, Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft, I, n° 1-2, January-February 1908, pp. 4, 10. Osvald Sirén, Florentinsk Renässansskultur och andra Konsthistoriska ämnen, Stockholm, Wahlström & Widstrand, 1909, p. 55. Émile Bertaux, Donatello, Paris, Plon, 1910, p. 93: Donatello, ca. 1427; may be identified with the small marble panel by Donatello showing the Virgin with the Child in her arms in the inventory of Palazzo Medici written in 1492. Michele Biancale, “Falsi attribuzioni donatelliane”, Acropoli, I, 4, April 1911, p. 375: Donatello, imperfect in the foreshortening of the left hand so to be dated early, ca. 1417; p. 382. Maud Cruttwell, Donatello, London, Methuen, 1911, p. 134: Donatello, comes from the Pazzi Palace. Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell’arte italiana. VI. La scultura del Quattrocento, Milan, Hoepli, 1911, pp. 266-267. Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, p. 15 cat. 30: Donatello, ca. 1423; frame not contemporary with the sculpture; wrongly identified by Cavallucci 1886 with a relief mentioned in the Pazzi Palace by Bocchi-Cinelli; mentions other versions in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Beckerath collection, Berlin; the Davanzati Palace, Florence. Georges Lafenestre, Paul Durrieu, André Michel and Léon Deshairs, Le Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts and Librairie G. van Oest, 1914, p. 88: about a stucco replica in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris. Nachlass Adolf von Beckerath Berlin, sale cat. (Berlin, Rudolph Lepke, 23-26 May 1916), Berlin, Rudolph Lepke, 1916, p. 11 lot 68, pl. 14a: compared to the replica in the Beckerath sale. Paul Schubring, Die Italienische Plastik des Quattrocento, Berlin, Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion, 1919, p. 63 fig. 59. Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1921, pp. 94, 95 fig. 50: Donatello. Wilhelm Bode, Die Italienische Plastik, 7th ed., Berlin and Leipzig, Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher Verleger and De Gruyter, 1922, p. 70 fig. 33. Oskar Wulff, Donatello, Leipzig, E. A. Seemann, 1922, p. 6-7, fig. 11: Donatello, ca. 1425. Max Deri, Das Bildwerk, Berlin, Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft, 1926, pp. 104-113: the Pazzi Madonna is by Donatello and the Orlandini Madonna (Inv. SKS 55) by a follower of the artist. Wilhelm von Bode, Mein Leben, Berlin, Reckendorf, 1930 then in: Thomas W. Gaehtgens and Barbara Paul eds., Berlin, Nicolai, 1997, I, p. 229, fig. 83; II, p. 213: said to have been bought in 1887. William Ormsby Gore, Florentine Sculptors of the Fifteenth Century, London, MacMillan, 1930, p. 140: Donatello. Arduino Colasanti, Donatello, French trans., Paris, Crès, 1931, pp. 88-89, pl. CCXXX: Donatello 1525-30 sic, probably a Medici provenance. Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri, “Sculture del Rinascimento a Bologna”, Dedalo, III, 1932-33, p. 360: mentions as possibly by Donatello a version in the church of the Certosa, Bologna. Frida Schottmüller, “Ein Jugendwerk Donatellos im Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum”, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, I, 1932-33, p. 339. E. F. Bange, Italienische Skulpturen im Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, Staatliche Museen in Berlin, 1933, pl. 20. Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barock. Erster Band. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz, Ton und Wachs, Zweite Auflage, Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1933, p. 7: Donatello, ca. 1425; said to come from the Pazzi Palace, but not to be the Madonna described by Bocchi-Cinelli. E. F. Bange, Die Italienischen Bildwerke im Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin, Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1934, p. 22. Hans Kauffmann, Donatello. Eine Einführung in sein Bilden und Denken, Berlin, Grotesche Verlagsbuchandlung, 1935, pp. 67-68, 70, 83, 157, 215, 218 notes 203-207: Donatello, ca. 1418; the dating is based on the proximity with the relief of God the Father topping the St George Tabernacle outside the church of Orsanmichele, Florence; relates the work to a 14th-century Virgin and Child in the Pinacoteca, Lucca (Inv. 160). Jenö Lányi, “Tre rilievi inediti di Donatello”, L’Arte, XXXVII, 1935, p. 292: immediate link with the God the Father carved above the St George Tabernacle in Orsanmichele, Florence. Leo Planiscig, Donatello, Vienna, Anton Schroll, 1939, pp. 16, 37 fig. 33: Donatello, ca. 1430; close to the Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Assumption of the Virgin on the tomb of Rinaldo Brancacci in Sant’Angelo a Nilo, Naples. Rezio Buscaroli, L’arte di Donatello, Florence, Monsalvato, 1942, p. 146 cat. 63, p. 180, pl. XXXIII: Donatello; close to the Sibyl of the Porta della Mandorla outside the Florentine Cathedral. Leo Planiscig, Desiderio da Settignano, Vienna, Anton Schroll, 1942, p. 14. Harold E. Wethey, “The Early Works of Bartolomé Ordóñez and Diego de Siloe”, The Art Bulletin, XXV, 1943, p. 325: influence from the Pazzi Madonna in the Charity carved by Diego de Siloe for the Tomb of Luis de Acuña in the Cathedral of Burgos. L. Goldscheider, Donatello, Paris, Phaidon, 1947, p. 39 fig. 106: school of Donatello. Leo Planiscig, Donatello, Florence, Arnaud Editore, 1947, pp. 40-41: does not come from the Pazzi Palace. H. W. Janson, “The Hildburgh Relief: Original or Copy?”, The Art Bulletin, XXX, 1948, p. 144. Giuseppe Galassi, La scultura fiorentina del Quattrocento, Milan, Ulrico Hoepli, 1949, p. 104 and pl. 135: Donatello, ca. 1420-24. Formerly in Berlin. “Editorial. Italian Sculpture in the Berlin Museums: Losses and Survivals”, The Burlington Magazine, XCVI, n° 612, March 1954, p. 69: thought to have been destroyed during WWII, until an exhibition in Wiesbaden during the summer of 1953 showed it had survived. H. W. Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1957, II, pp. 32, 44-45: Donatello, ca. 1422; no certainty about the provenance of the relief, as Bode declares to have studied it shortly before buying it, two decades after the destruction of the Pazzi Palace; identification with the description of Bocchi-Cinelli rejected; probably the work mentioned by Vasari in the house of Antonio de’ Nobili, “a marble panel by Donatello showing a half-length figure of the Madonna in low relief”, or the one owned by Lelio Torelli “a marble panel of the Madonna by Donatello”; very Masacciesque in drapery and expression; close to the Prophet and Sibyl carved in 1422 for the Porta della Mandorla outside the Florentine Cathedral. Peter Metz, Europäische Bildwerke von der Spätantike bis zum Rokoko aus den Beständen der Skulpturen-Abteilung der Ehem. Staatliche Museen Berlin-Dahlem, exh. cat. (Essen, Villa Hügel, 4 June-31 September 1957), Munich, Prestel, n. d. post 1958, p. 49 cat. 236, pl. 37. Luigi Grassi (ed.), Tutta la scultura di Donatello, Milan, Rizzoli, 1958, p. 64: Donatello, ca. 1422, uncertain provenance from the Pazzi Palace; derives from a motif by the Lorenzetti brothers. John Pope-Hennessy, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, London, Phaidon Press, 1958, pp. 22, 279 and pl. 19: Donatello; does not correspond to the description of Bocchi-Cinelli. Giorgio Castelfranco, Donatello, Milan, Aldo Martello, 1963, p. 38: Donatello; dating 1422 in comparison with the Sibyl for the Porta della Mandorla outside the Florentine Cathedral. John Pope-Hennessy, “The Italian Plaquette”, Proceedings of the British Academy, I, 1964 now in: idem, The Study and Criticism of Italian Sculpture, New York and Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University Press, 1980, p. 194: comparison with a plaquette type (see Inv. SKS 1028). Peter Metz, “Das neue Skulpturenmuseum in Dahlem”, Jahrbuch der Stiftung preußischer Kulturbesitz, III, 1964-65, p. 110. Luciano Berti, “Donatello e Masaccio”, Antichità viva, V, 3, 1966, p. 12: close to the St Giovenale in Masaccio’s Triptych in Cascia di Regello, dated 1422; the motif of the veil of the Virgin will be reused for the Virgin in the S. Anna Metterza Altarpiece by Masolino and Masaccio in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Peter Metz, Bildwerke der christlichen Epochen von der Spätantike bis zum Klassizismus aus den Beständen der Skulpturenabteilung der Staatliche Museen, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin-Dahlem, Munich, Prestel, 1966, p. 89 cat. 496, pl. 75. Charles Avery, Florentine Renaissance Sculpture, London, John Murray, 1970, pp. 87, 109, 111, 186 fig. 64: Donatello, ca. 1420. Carlo Del Bravo, Scultura senese del Quattrocento, Florence, Edam, 1970, p. 41: Jacopo della Quercia cites the Pazzi Madonna in the background of the Martyr of St Ursula relief in the predella of the Trenta Altar in San Frediano, Lucca. James H. Beck, “Masaccio’s Early Career as a Sculptor”, The Art Bulletin, LIII, n° 2, June 1971, pp. 178, 181 fig. 4: Masaccio’s St Giovenale Triptych is based on the Pazzi Madonna. John Pope-Hennessy, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, 2nd edition, London, Phaidon Press, 1971, pp. 19, 258, pl. 18. Jacopo della Quercia nell’arte del suo tempo. Mostra didattica, exh. cat. (Siena, Palazzo Pubblico, 24 May-12 October 1975), Florence, Centro Di, 1975, p. 246: compared to Jacopo della Quercia’s Flight to Egypt on the façade of St Petronio, Bologna. Artur Rosenauer, Studien zum frühen Donatello. Skulptur im projektiven Raum der Neuzeit, Vienna, Adolf Holzhausen, 1975, p. 132. John Pope-Hennessy, “The Madonna Reliefs of Donatello”, Apollo, CIII, n° 169, March 1976 now in: idem, The Study and Criticism of Italian Sculpture, New York and Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 72-74, 102-103 note 4: Donatello, ca. 1430; linked with the Sibyl of the Porta della Mandorla outside the Florentine Cathedral; discusses the original and photographic vantage point; does not exclude a provenance from the Pazzi Palace, saying that the Virgin bears the Child in her right hand. Jane Schuyler, Florentine Busts: Sculpted Portraiture in the Fifteenth Century, Ph. D. (New York, Columbia University, 1972), New York and London, Garland, 1976, p. 22: close to the frescoes of Domenico di Bartolo in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena. Mária G. Aggházy, Italian and Spanish Sculpture, Budapest, Kossuth Printing House, 1977, p. 19: Donatello, 1420-22; related to Michelozzo’s Virgin and Child in the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest (Inv. 1170). John Pope-Hennessy, “The Evangelist Roundels in the Pazzi Chapel”, Apollo, CVI, n° 188, October 1977 now in: idem, The Study and Criticism of Italian Sculpture, New York and Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University Press, 1980, p. 113. Peter Bloch in Belser Kunstbibliothek. Die Meisterwerke aus der Skulpturengalerie Berlin Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Stuttgart and Zurich, Belser Verlag, 1980, pp. 64-65: Donatello, ca. 1420. Antonio Natali in La civiltà del cotto. Arte della terracotta nell’area fiorentina dal XV al XX secolo, exh. cat. (Impruneta, May-October 1980), Florence, Officine Grafiche Firenze, 1980, p. 92: compared to the Madonna della Gherardesca in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (Inv. Sculture 480). Joachim Poeschke, Donatello. Figur und Quadro, Munich, Wilhelm Fink, 1980, pp. 39-40, pl. XXII fig. 33. Seven Centuries of European Sculpture, exh. cat. (London, Heim Gallery, 9 June-27 August 1982), London, Heim Gallery, 1982, n. p.: compared to a relief by Bartolomeo Bellano (close to Inv. SKS 1992). Deborah Strom, “Desiderio and the Madonna Relief in Quattrocento Florence”, Pantheon, XL, n° 2, April-June 1982, p. 134: genuineness suspect as the figures have no haloes; the size is similar to the works by Jacopo Sansovino dating from the 16th century; the left hand of the Virgin is “clumsy and inorganic”. “The Pazzi Madonna in Berlin, then, is probably a sixteenth century version of a famous Donatello invention.” Bonnie A. Bennett and David G. Wilkins, Donatello, Oxford, Phaidon, 1984, pp. 49, 155: compared to the low viewpoint of the Chellini Madonna in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and of the Madonna del Perdono in the Museo dell’Opera metropolitana, Siena; p. 229 note 30: do not entirely reject the dating of Strom 1982 in the 16th century. Hannelore Sachs, Donatello, East Berlin, Henschelverlag, 1984, cat. 6: Donatello, compared to the Virgin and Child with four Cherubs (Inv. SKS 54) and the Orlandini Madonna (Inv. SKS 55). Giancarlo Gentilini in Paola Barocchi et al. (eds.), Omaggio a Donatello. 1386-1986. Donatello e la storia del Museo, exh. cat. (Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 19 December 1985-30 May 1986), Florence, SPES, 1985, p. 267: influenced the Madonna della Gherardesca in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; p. 272: influenced the Madonna Goretti Miniati also in the Bargello; p. 431: relationship with the plaquette Madonna in a shell niche (see Inv. SKS 3044). Robert Munman, Optical Corrections in the Sculpture of Donatello, Philadelphia, The American Philosophical Society, 1985, pp. 40-41 note 111: cites Pope-Hennessy 1976 ed. 1980 about the vantage point of this work. Charles Avery, “Donatello’s Madonnas Reconsidered”, Apollo, new series, CXXIV, n° 295, September 1986, pp. 176, 182 note 7: Donatello, ca. 1422, not in the Pazzi Palace because the Bocchi-Cinelli description mentions a cushion (guanciale); proposes to call the work the “Berlin-Dahlem Madonna”. Luciano Bellosi in Alan Phipps Darr and Giorgio Bonsanti (eds.), Donatello e i suoi, exh. cat. (Florence, Forte del Belvedere, 15 June-7 September 1986), Detroit and Florence, The Detroit Institute of Arts, La Casa Usher and Arnaldo Mondadori Editore, 1986, p. 147: the Mellon Madonna in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC has a similar profile. Luciano Berti in Alan Phipps Darr and Giorgio Bonsanti (eds.), Donatello e i suoi, exh. cat. (Florence, Forte del Belvedere, 15 June-7 September 1986), Detroit and Florence, The Detroit Institute of Arts, La Casa Usher and Arnaldo Mondadori Editore, 1986, p. 181 fig. 63: mentions the version of the Conservatorio delle Signore Montalve alla Quiete, Florence. Enrica Neri Lusanna in eadem and Lucia Faedo (eds.), Il museo Bardini a Firenze. Volume secondo: le sculture, Milan, Electa, 1986, p. 254: connection with the type of Inv. SKS 67; p. 249: connection with another type close to Inv. SKS 66 and to Jacopo della Quercia’s Flight to Egypt carved on the façade of San Petronio, Bologna. “Schätze aus der Skulpturengalerie. Die ‘Madonna Pazzi’ von Donatello”, Petrusblatt, 23 February 1986. Patrick M. de Winter, “Recent Acquisitions of Italian Renaissance Decorative Arts. Part I: Incorporating Notes on the Sculptor Severo da Ravenna”, The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, LXXIII, 3, March 1986, p. 76. Volker Krahn and Johanna Lessmann, Italienische Renaissancekunst im Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld, Oberhausen, Karl Plitt, 1987, pp. 30-32: compared to the Virgin and Child by Desiderio da Settignano in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin. Paul Joannides, “Masaccio, Masolino and ‘Minor’ Sculpture”, Paragone. Arte, XXXVIII, new series, n° 5 (451), September 1987, pp. 4-5. Ronald G. Kecks, Madonna und Kind. Das häusliche Andachtsbild im Florenz des 15. Jahrhunderts, West Berlin, Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1988, pp. 89, 92. Luciano Bellosi, “Donatello e il recupero della scultura in terracotta”, in Donatello-Studien, Munich, Bruckmann, 1989, p. 143. Giorgio Bonsanti, “La Madonna delle Murate”, in Donatello-Studien, Munich, Bruckmann, 1989, p. 242: the marble of the Pazzi Madonna has some problems of conservation. Antonio Natali, “Per due lastre tombali in San Francesco a Prato”, in Donatello-Studien, Munich, Bruckmann, 1989, p. 247. Ursula Schlegel, Italienische Skulturen. Ein Gang durch die Berliner Skulpturengalerie, Berlin, Mann, 1989, p. 12. Joachim Poeschke, Die Skulptur der Renaissance in Italien. Band 1. Donatello und seine Zeit, Munich, Hirmer, 1990, p. 23 and pl. 59: Donatello, ca. 1417-18. Charles Avery, Donatello. Catalogo completo delle opere, Florence, Cantini, 1991, pp. 11, 16, 35 cat. 16, p. 49: connected to the type of Inv. SKS 1028. Keith Christiansen in Jane Martineau (ed.), Andrea Mantegna, exh. cat. (London, Royal Academy of Arts, 17 January-5 April 1992; and New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9 May-12 July 1992), Milan, Olivetti-Electa, 1992, p. 141: foreshortening of the niche of the St Euphemia by Andrea Mantegna in the Museo di Capodimone, Naples, is taken from the Pazzi Madonna. Andrea De Marchi in Luciano Bellosi (ed.), Una scuola per Piero. Luce, colore e prospettiva nella formazione fiorentina di Piero della Francesca, exh. cat. (Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, 27 September 1992-10 January 1993), Venice, Marsilio, 1992, p. 70: influence of the Pazzi Madonna in the foreshortened hand on the Virgin and Child by Domenico di Bartolo in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1437). Chris Fischer, “Fra Bartolomeo and Donatello – a ‘New’ Tondo”, in Monika Cämerer (ed.), Kunst des Cinquecento in der Toskana, Munich, Bruckmann, 1992, p. 14. Anthony Radcliffe, “Multiple Production in the Fifteenth-Century: Florentine Stucco Madonnas and the Della Robbia Workshop”, in idem, Malcom Baker and Michael Maek-Gérard (eds.), The Tyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Renaissance and Later Sculpture with Works of Art in Bronze, London, Sotheby’s Publications, 1992, pp. 17-18. John Pope-Hennessy, Donatello Sculptor, New York, London and Paris, Abbeville Press, 1993, pp. 254-256: Donatello, ca. 1428-30, close to the Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; parallel in the perspective construction with the Carnescecchi Tabernacle by Domenico Veneziano in the National Gallery, London; work perceived as a reflection of contemporary life, as child mortality was high; p. 344 note 12: “a notably misleading catalogue entry by Janson 1957 makes no reference to the physical state of the relief, but contests its provenance from the Pazzi Palace.” Artur Rosenauer, Donatello, Milan, Electa, 1993, pp. 89-90, 105: Donatello, 1425-30; doubts about the Pazzi Palace provenance; composition derived from the Madonna della Maestà in the Museo di arte sacra, Massa Maritima, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti; echoes Masaccio; recalls Attic steles of 5th or 4th-century B.C.; may have been part of a street tabernacle; analogies with the lute player in the Feast of Herod in the Baptistery Font of the Siena Cathedral and the apostles in the Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Luciano Bellosi and Giancarlo Gentilini, “Una nuova Madonna in terracotta del giovane Donatello”, Pantheon, LIV, 1996, pp. 19-26 (reprinted as a volume: Una nuova Madonna in terracotta del giovane Donatello, exh. cat. Turin, Antichi Maestri Pittori, 4 April-30 May 1998, Turin, Antichi Maestri Pittori, 1998, pp. 22-23: Donatello, ca. 1425. John Pope-Hennessy, An Introduction to Italian Sculpture. Volume II. Italian Renaissance Sculpture, London, Phaidon, 4th edition, 1996, pp. 66-67: Donatello, ca. 1420; p. 355: Donatello, ca. 1430, foreshortening of the left hand of the Virgin similar to the left hand of Herod in the Feast of Herod in the Baptistery of Siena. Dawson W. Carr, Andrea Mantegna. The Adoration of the Magi, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 1997, p. 69: window motif similar to Andrea Mantegna’s Presentation in the Temple in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, perhaps influenced by Donatello. Anna Jolly, Madonnas by Donatello and his Circle, Frankfurt am Main et al., Peter Lang, 1998, pp. 100-103 cat. 16.1: Donatello, ca. 1417-20; one terracotta replica, seven in stucco; not the work described by Bocchi-Cinelli in the Pazzi Palace; pp. 144, 146: link with Inv. SKS 56 and Inv. SKS 1028; p. 185: link with the Madonna Goretti Miniati in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; p. 190: link with the Amsterdam Madonna in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; p. 196: not a Pazzi Palace provenance. Francesca Picininni in Sulle traccie di Donatello: l’altarolo quattrocentesco del Museo Civico d’Arte, exh. cat. (Modena, Museo Civico d’Arte, 4 December 1999- May 2000), Modena, Comune di Modena, n. d. 1999, p. 9. Max Seidel, “Das Renaissance-Museum. Wilhelm Bode als ‘Schüler’ Jacob Burckhardt”, in idem (ed.), Storia dell’arte e politica culturale intorno al 1900. La fondazione dell’Istituto Germanico di Storia dell’Arte di Firenze, Venice, Marsilio, 1999, pp. 55-109 Italian translation: “Il Renaissance-Museum di Berlino. Wilhelm Bode ‘allievo’ di Jacob Burckhardt”, in idem, Arte italiana del Medioevo e del Rinascimento. Volume 2: Architettura e scultura, Venice, Marsilio, 2003, p. 842: for the opening of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in 1904, the Pazzi Madonna was not at the center of the wall, reserved for the Young St John the Baptist (Inv. SKS 1793) because Wilhelm Bode regretted not having acquired the Bust of Niccolò da Uzzano now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; p. 846. Katalog der Originalabgüsse. Heft 6. Christliche Epochen. Spätantike. Byzanz. Italien. Freiplastik. Reliefs. Bronzestatuetten, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2000, cat. 2678; cover of the price volume. Bruce Boucher (ed.), Earth and Fire. Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, exh. cat. (Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 18 November 2001-3 February 2002 and London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 14 March-7 July 2002), New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2001, p. 112: comparison with the Virgin and Child by Michelozzo in the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest. Alfredo Bellandi in Mariacristina Gori (ed.), Mater amabilis. L’iconografia mariana nella scultura della diocese di Forlì-Bertinoro fra Quattrocento e primo Novecento, Forlì, Diocesi di Forlì-Bentinoro, 2002, p. 72: entry about the version in the church of the Santi Niccolò e Francesco in Castrocaro Terme. Tommaso Mozzati in Mina Gregori (ed.), In the Light of Apollo. Italian Renaissance and Greece, exh. cat. (Athens, National Gallery, 22 December 2003-31 March 2004), Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale, 2003, p. 241: perspective similar to a work by Giovanni da Pisa (of the type of Inv. SKS 2949). Giovanni Lista, Medardo Rosso. Scultura e fotografia, Milan, 5 Continents Editions, 2003, p. 54: the relief was broken in fourteen pieces when it was transferred to Berlin after its purchase in 1886; this created a big scandal in Italy. Anabel Thomas, Art and Piety in the Female Religious Communities of Renaissance Italy. Iconography, Space, and the Religious Woman’s Perspective, Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 132 fig. 25. Keith Christiansen in Matteo Ceriana et al. (eds.), Fra Carnevale. Un artista rinascimentale da Filippo Lippi a Piero della Francesca, exh. cat. (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera, 13 October 2004-9 January 2005; and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 February-1 May 2005), Milan, Olivares, 2004, p. 152: comparison of the tompe-l’oeil frame with Filippo Lippi’s Double portrait in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. 89.15.19); p. 166: the niche was followed by Scheggia in a painted Madonna and Child not specified; p. 168: the niche contributes to the atmosphere of tragic premonition. Peta Motture, “Making and Viewing: Donatello and the Treatment of Relief”, in Penelope Curtis (ed.), Depth of Field: the Place of Relief in the Time of Donatello, exh. cat. (Leeds, Henry Moore Institute, 23 September 2004-27 March 2005), Leeds, Henry Moore Foundation, 2004, pp. 20-21: the monochrome appearance was made for a sophisticated viewer. Carl Brandon Strehlke, Italian Paintings 1250-1450 in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2004, p. 120 and fig. 21.8: comparison with the Virgin and Child by Domenico di Bartolo in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (foreshortening of the right hand); Domenico may have known a stucco version and not the original. Jane van Deuren in Morten Steen Hansen and Joaneath A. Spicer (eds.), Masterpieces of Italian Painting. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, 2005, p. 46: connected to a Virgin and Child in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, attributed to Filippo Lippi. Michael Grisko, “Die Ausstellung: Einblicke in die vier Sammlungen”, in Carola Wedel (ed.), Das Bode-Museum. Schatzkammer der Könige, Berlin, Jaron Verlag, 2006 (2nd ed. 2007), p. 102. Michaël Knuth in Skulpturensammlung im Bode-Museum, Munich et al., Prestel, 2006, p. 124. Hans Körner, Botticelli, Cologne, Dumont, 2006, pp. 21-22, fig. 15. Fabrizio Magnani in Davide Banzato, Alberta De Nicolò Salmazo and Anna Maria Spiazzi (eds.), Mantegna e Padova. 1445-1460, exh. cat. (Padua, Musei Civici agli Eremitani, 16 September 2006-14 January 2007), Milan, Skira, 2006, p. 246. Francesco Rossi in idem (ed.), Plachette e rilievi di bronzo nell’età del Mantegna, exh. cat. (Mantua, Museo della Città di Palazzo San Sebastiano, 16 September 2006-14 January 2007), Milan, Skira, 2006, p. 38: influence on plaquettes attributed to Donatello. The Borromeo Madonna by Donatello, sale cat. (New York, Sotheby’s, 26 January 2006), p. 10: relation to the so-called Borromeo Madonna attributed to Donatello now in Fort Worth, Kimbell Museum. Marc Bormand, “Desiderio : un style pour la grâce”, in idem, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Nicholas Penny (eds.), Desiderio da Settignano. La scoperta della grazia nella scultura del Rinascimento, exh. cat. (Paris, Musée du Louvre, 27 October 2006-22 January 2007; Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 22 February-3 June 2007; Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1 July-8 October 2007), Paris and Milan, Musée du Louvre and 5 Continents, 2007, pp. 53, 56 fig. 29. Miklós Boskovits, “Wilhelm von Bode als Kunstkenner”, in Stefan Weppelmann (ed.), Zeremoniell und Raum in der frühen italienischen Malerei, Petersberg, Michael Imhof Verlag, 2007, p. 19. Marc Bormand, Donatello. La Vierge et l’Enfant. Deux reliefs en terre cuite, Paris, Musée du Louvre and Somogy, 2008, pp. 9-11, 15. Volker Krahn, “Pastiche or Fake? A ‘Donatello’ by Medardo Rosso”, Apollo, CLXIX, June 2009, p. 45: Medardo Rosso probably made a bronze copy of the Pazzi Madonna. Paola Mola and Fabio Vittucci (eds.), Medardo Rosso. Catalogo ragionato della scultura, Milan, Skira, 2009, p. 110 note 6, p. 340: Medardo Rosso probably had a cast of the Pazzi Madonna given by the Berlin Museums. Valerie Niemeyer Chini, Stefano Bardini e Wilhelm Bode. Mercanti e connoisseur fra Ottocento e Novecento, Florence, Polistampa, 2009, pp. 79, 238-239 docs. 72-74, 80, 85: about the acquisition of the work by the Berlin Museums; the role of Stefano Bardini is evidenced for the first time. Sylvie Tritz and Hans-Ulrich Kessler, John Flaxman and the Renaissance. A Master of Neo-Classicism in Dialogue with Masaccio and Donatello, exh. cat. (Berlin, Bode-Museum, 9 April-12 July 2009), Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2009, cat. 10 pp. 80-81. Frank Fehrenbach, “Coming Alive: Some Remarks on the Rise of ‘Monochrome’ Sculpture in the Renaissance”, Source, XXX, n°3, Spring 2011, pp. 51-53: Donatello played on the natural coloration of the marble. Michael Knuth, “Desiderio da Settignano und seinem Umkreis zugeschriebene Bildwerke in Berlin”, in Joseph Connors et al. (eds.), Desiderio da Settignano, symposium papers (Florence, Kunsthistorisches Institut and Villa I Tatti, 9-12 May 2007), Venice, Marsilio, 2011, p. 197. Agnès Cascio and Juliette Lévy, “Cercle de Donatello. La Vierge et l’Enfant (d’après Donatello, Madone Pazzi) 1450 c.”, Kermes, XXV, n° 87, juillet-septembre 2012, p. 24: about the restoration of the version in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Philippe Dagen, “Florence, au XVe siècle, berce de nouvelles formes”, Le Monde, 22 octobre 2013, p. 14 (illustrated). Volker Krahn in Marc Bormand and Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi (eds.), La primavera del Rinascimento. La scultura e le arti a Firenze 1400-1460, exh. cat. (Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 23 March-18 August 2013 and Paris, Musée du Louvre, 26 September 2013-6 January 2014), Florence, Mandragora, 2013, p. 432 cat. VIII. 5; p. 434: Donatello, ca. 1420-25; doubts about the Pazzi Palace provenance; bought in 1886 from Stefano Bardini, who had acquired it from Count Lamponi Leopardi; acquired by the Berlin Museums on 18 April 1886 for 28,227.50 Mark; said to have been broken in 14 pieces during the transfer to Berlin (according to Lista 2003). Tommaso Mozzati, “‘Alla maniera de’ Fiorentini’: diffusione e tendenze del gusto nel Rinascimento italiano”, in Marc Bormand and Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi (eds.), La primavera del Rinascimento. La scultura e le arti a Firenze 1400-1460, exh. cat. (Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 23 March-18 August 2013 and Paris, Musée du Louvre, 26 September 2013-6 January 2014), Florence, Mandragora, 2013, pp. 182-183, 187 note 18. Neville Rowley, Donatello. La renaissance de la sculpture, Garches, A Propos, 2013, pp. 30-31. Francesco Caglioti, “Donatello misconosciuto: il ‘San Lorenzo’ per la Pieve di Borgo San Lorenzo”, Prospettiva, 155-156, July-October 2014, p. 50. Christie’s, sale cat. (Paris, Christie’s, 23 June 2014), sale 3617, lot 42: sale of the copy after the Pazzi Madonna formerly in the Davanzati palace, Florence, and attributed to the workshop of Donatello. Paola Mola, “Vergini, fauni e senatori. Sui modelli per le copie dall’antico al Museo Rosso di Barzio”, in Mario Guderzo (ed.), Abitare il museo. Le case degli scultori, symposium papers (Possagno, Fondazione Canova, 4-5 May 2012), Crocetta del Montello, Terra Ferma, 2014, pp. 269, 274: Medardo Rosso probably had a cast of the Pazzi Madonna given by the Berlin Museums. Jeremy Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture. A Catalogue of the Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Volume 2. Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum Publications, 2014, pp. 387-388. Jeremy Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture. A Catalogue of the Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Volume 3. Plaquettes, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum Publications, 2014, p. 812. Neville Rowley, “Wie man ein Denkmal wird. Wilhelm Bode und die Berliner Museen 1883/84”, in Nikolaus Bernau, Hans-Dieter Nägelke and Bénédicte Savoy (eds.), Museumsvisionen. Der Wettbewerb zur Erweiterung der Berliner Museumsinsel 1883/84, exh. cat. (Berlin, Bauakademie, 16 September–11 October 2015), Kiel, Ludwig, 2015, p. 90: compared to the Orlandini Madonna (Inv. SKS 55). Neville Rowley (10 February 2016)

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Nach den Metamorphosen des Ovid liebt Venus den wegen seiner Schönheit berühmten Adonis. Das Relief zeigt einen Abschied auf immer, denn Adonis bricht zu einer Jagd auf, von der er nicht mehr zurückkehren wird – durch einen wilden Eber findet er den Tod. Der Schöpfer des Reliefs, der kaiserliche Münzschneider und Professor für Bildhauerei an der Wiener Akademie, Matthäus Donner, bediente sich hier einer Komposition, die auf seinen berühmten älteren Bruder, Georg Raphael Donner zurückgeht. Das Thema erfreute sich offenbar großer Beliebtheit: Erhalten haben sich insgesamt vier jeweils in unterschiedlichen Materialien überlieferte Exemplare derselben Komposition.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Florentinischer Bildhauer Giuliano de’ Medici c. 1480. Marmor Giuliano de’ Medici (1453-1478) war der jüngere Bruder von Lorenzo il Magnifico. Infolge einer Verschwörung, angeführt von der rivalisierenden Familie Pazzi, wurden Lorenzo und Giuliano während der Ostermesse in der Kathedrale von Florenz angegriffen. Lorenzo überlebte, Giuliano nicht. Dieses Porträt wurde wahrscheinlich nach diesem tragischen Tod zur Erinnerung an Giuliano geschaffen. Florentine sculptor Giuliano de’ Medici c. 1480. Marble Giuliano de’ Medici (1453-1478) was the younger brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent. As a result of a conspiracy plotted by the rival Pazzi family, Lorenzo and Giuliano were attacked during the Easter mass in Florence Cathedral. Lorenzo survived, Giuliano did not. This portrait was probably carved after this tragic death, to commemorate Giuliano’s memory. Erworben 1888 Inv. 190

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Das Relief stammt vermutlich aus dem ehemaligen Kloster San Francesco in Siena. Es wird als ein Frühwerk des sowohl als Bildhauer als auch als Maler, Ingenieur und Architekt tätigen Francesco di Giorgio Martini betrachtet. In der Strenge der Form, aber auch im Vorrang des Ausdrucks gegenüber der Schönheit der Form offenbart das Relief eine starke Orientierung am Werk Donatellos. Souverän hat Francesco di Giorgio Martini dabei zu einer bemerkenswert eigenständigen Variante des von dem großen Florentiner entwickelten so genannten gepressten Reliefs gefunden. Die in den Stein gezauberte ›nervös-impressionistische‹ Gewanddrapierung lässt den Marmor wächsern erscheinen. Derartige atmosphärische Qualitäten sind auch den Bronzereliefs des Meisters eigen.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Die entscheidende Wende von der Hochrenaissance zum so genannten Manierismus wurde in der venezianischen Skulptur durch den Florentiner Jacopo Sansovino vollzogen, der im Jahre 1527 nach der Plünderung Roms, dem Sacco di Roma, nach Venedig gekommen war. In seiner Formensprache orientierte er sich an Werken der Antike sowie Raffaels und Michelangelos. Mit der Berliner Sacra Conversazione, die eine vor einem Thron stehende Muttergottes mit dem Christusknaben zeigt, flankiert links von der heiligen Katharina von Alexandrien (?) und dem heiligen Jakobus, rechts von dem heiligen Franziskus von Assisi und der heiligen Klara, griff Sansovino eine Bildform auf, die traditionell vorrangig für Altargemälde gewählt wurde. Mittels beinahe vollplastischer Köpfe und einem perspektivisch geschichteten Architekturhintergrund vermag Sansovino der Szene Tiefe zu geben. Er holt dieses religiöse Thema, das in der Malerei oft in künstlichen Räumen vor irrealem Goldhintergrund oder Brokatstoffen präsentiert wird, in eine greifbare Realität. Ungewöhnlich ist auch das verwendete Material, gebrannter Ton, der durch seine weiße Fassung den Charakter eines Marmorbildwerks hervorrufen konnte. Teile der antikisierenden Architektur, ebenso wie die Sandalen der Figuren, das Kreuz der heiligen Klara und das Buch des heiligen Franziskus zeigen Reste einer wohl ursprünglichen Vergoldung.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Antonio Rossellino (Werkstatt) Settignano (?) 1427/28-1479 Florenz Cosimo „der Ältere“ de’ Medici um 1460. Marmor Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464), genannt der Ältere, war ein unvorstellbar reicher florentinischer Bankier, der die Florentinische Republik von 1434 bis zu seinem Tod regierte und viele herausragende Meisterwerke jener Zeit bestellte. Dies ist das älteste erhaltene Zeugnis von Cosimos Antlitz in der Skulptur, das wahrscheinlich noch zu seinen Lebzeiten geschaffen wurde. Antonio Rossellino (workshop) Settignano (?) 1427/28-1479 Florence Cosimo “the Elder” de’ Medici c. 1460. Marble Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464), called the Elder, was an immensely rich Florentine banker who ruled the Florentine Republic from 1434 until his death and commissioned many outstanding masterpieces of the time. This is the earliest surviving sculptural testimony to Cosimo’s likeness, which was probably made when he was still alive. Erworben 1842 Inv. 124

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Das sehr malerisch angelegte Relief illustriert eine Szene aus den Metamorphosen des Ovid: Während des gemeinsamen Bades mit ihren Gefährtinnen wird Diana, die Göttin der Jagd und der Keuschheit, von dem Jäger Aktäon beobachtet. Da kein Sterblicher sie unbekleidet sehen durfte, wird Aktäon zur Strafe in einen Hirsch verwandelt, danach von seinen eigenen Hunden gejagt und zerfleischt. Mazza, der bedeutendste Bologneser Bildhauer des 18. Jahrhunderts, verwandelte die tragische Handlung in ein heiteres, arkadisches Geschehen. Schöne Frauengestalten, runde weiche Körper, umspielt von feinen Draperien, bestimmen die Szene. Harmonisch sind sie in und vor einem illusionistischen Landschaftsraum plaziert. Bravourös ist die Ausarbeitung des Reliefs: Mazza charakterisiert mit gleicher Vollkommenheit den flachen, zart angedeuteten Hintergrund wie die plastisch gerundeten vorderen Figuren. Der detailreiche, malerische Darstellungsstil erreicht die Grenzen bildhauerischer Möglichkeiten.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Maria in halber Figur, halb nach rechts gewandt in rotem Gewand mit breiten Goldborten an Ober- und Unterarm, blauem Mantel und weißem Kopftuch hält mit beiden Händen das gewickelte Christuskind.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Auf steinigem Boden stehen zwei Engelknaben, die eine flache Schale mit dem Haupt des Täufers berühren, die auf einem Sockel liegt. Letzterer weist zwei Inschriften auf, im Hauptfeld untereinander die Worte: PREMIUM INFAUSTI TRIPUDII und auf dem unteren Profil die Künstlerinschrift. Wegen seiner hohen Qualität wurde das Werk irrtümlich zunächst dem Goldschmied und Bronzegießer Francesco da Sant’Agata zugeschrieben. Johannes der Täufer war der Patron gegen Halskrankheiten. Die Verehrung der ›Johannesschüsseln‹ diente zu deren Vorbeugung.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Madonna mit dem Kind im Stühlchen. Es ist auf einem Kissen an ein gemustertes Tuch gelehnt. Die Rechte schiebt es zwischen die Hände der anbetenden Mutter. Oben fünf Cherubim und weiße Wolken, hinter denen Lichtstrahlen hervorbrechen. English catalogue entry After Donatello Virgin and Child with Cherubs (known as the Madonna della seggiola) ca. 1450-60 Painted stucco 59 x 39 cm Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 67. Bode-Museum, on view. Provenance Florence (before 1880); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1880-1904); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1904-1939); Berlin, storage (1939-1945); Soviet Union, secret storage (1945/46-1958); East Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (1958-1990); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (1990-present). Acquisition Bought in Florence in 1880. Other versions • Florence, Museo Bardini, Inv. 1193. Painted stucco, 55 x 40 cm, tabernacle height : 116 cm. • London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. 57-1867. Gilt terracotta, 74.3 x 55.9 cm. Purchased in Florence from Gagliardi (100 pounds). • Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Inv. 1762. Terracotta, height: 43 cm. • Formerly Berlin, Adolf von Beckerath collection. His sale, Berlin, 20-21 November 1916, lot 164. • Formerly Berlin, Gerhardt Bollert collection. 67.5 x 47 x 6 cm, now Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. • Formerly Cologne, Heinrich Neuerberg collection. Photo Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz: 173537. • Formerly Florence, Art market (see Middeldorf 1978). • Formerly Florence, Raoul Tolentino collection. His sale, New York, 1920. Bibliography Bode and Tschudi 1888 Wilhelm Bode and Hugo von Tschudi, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der Christlichen Epoche, Berlin, W. Spemann, 1888, pp. 19-20 cat. 53, pl. II: school of Donatello. Same pupil of Donatello as the author of the Madonna di via Pietrapiana in Florence. Other versions in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and in a private collection, Paris. Semrau 1891 Max Semrau, Donatellos Kanzeln in S. Lorenzo. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der italienieschen Plastik im XV. Jahrhundert, Breslau, Schottlaender, 1891, p. 142 note 2. Bode 1894 Wilhelm Bode, Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas, Munich, F. Bruckmann, 1894, II, pl. 98: after the work by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Inv. 57-1867). Bode 1902 Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1902, pp. 109-110: after the terracotta by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Balcarres 1903 Lord Balcarres, Donatello, London and New York, Duckworth & Co. and Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903, pp. 182-183: after a lost work by Donatello; the Virgin and Child in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Inv. 57-1867) is a forgery, possibly by the 19th century sculptor Giovanni Bastianini (as is the Piot Madonna in the Musée du Louvre; Inv. RF 3967). Bode 1892-1905 Wilhelm Bode, Denkmäler der Renaissance-Skulptur Toscanas, Munich, Brückmann, 1892-1905, pp. 32-33, pl. 98: school of Donatello, after the similar work in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Inv. 57-1867), an original relief despite it the fact it is considered a forgery by its institution. Schubring 1907 Paul Schubring, Donatello. Des Meisters Werke in 277 Abbildungen, Stuttgart and Leipzig, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1907, p. 174: school of Donatello. Schottmüller 1913 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, pp. 21-22 cat. 45: workshop of Donatello; reduced copy after the terracotta in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Inv. 57-1867), which is a masterpiece unrightfully attributed to Bastianini. Bode 1921 Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1921, p. 124 fig. 78: follower of Donatello. Maclagan and Longhurst 1932 Eric Maclagan and Margaret H. Longhurst, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932, p. 23. Schottmüller 1933 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barock. Erster Band. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz, Ton und Wachs, Zweite Auflage, Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1933, p. 14: workshop of Donatello; close to a Virgin and Child in Berlin (Inv. SKS 2634); the similar version in the Victoria and Albert Museum has been seen by Bode as a model for a bronze relief but is a forgery by Giovanni Bastianini. Buscaroli, 1942 Rezio Buscaroli, L’arte di Donatello, Florence, Monsalvato, 1942, p. 149 cat. 97: Andrea Guardi? Pope-Hennessy 1959 ed. 1968 John Pope-Hennessy, “Some Donatello Problems”, Studies in the History of Art Dedicated to William E. Suida on His Eightieth Birthday, London, Phaidon Press, 1959, pp. 62, 63 fig. 17 now in idem, Essays on Italian Sculpture, London and New York, Phaidon, 1968, p. 61¬-62, fig. 60: workshop of Donatello; original by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Pope-Hennessy 1964 John Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1964, I, p. 77: after Donatello, original by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Negri Arnoldi 1970 Francesco Negri Arnoldi, “Scultura italiana al Victoria and Albert Museum. II”, Commentari, XXI, 1970, pp. 206-207: the work is a forgery. Pope-Hennessy 1976 ed. 1980 John Pope-Hennessy, “The Madonna Reliefs of Donatello”, Apollo, CIII, n° 169, March 1976 now in: idem, The Study and Criticism of Italian Sculpture, New York and Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 99-100: after the relief by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Bennett and Wilkins 1984 Bonnie A. Bennett and David G. Wilkins, Donatello, Oxford, Phaidon, 1984, p. 127. Neri Lusanna 1986 Enrica Neri Lusanna in eadem and Lucia Faedo (eds.), Il museo Bardini a Firenze. Volume secondo: le sculture, Milan, Electa, 1986, p. 254: after Donatello? Middeldorf 1978 Ulrich Middeldorf, “Some Florentine Painted Madonna Reliefs”, in Collaboration in Italian Renaissance Art, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1978, pp. 77-84 now in: idem, Raccolta di scritti that is Collected Writings, III, 1974-1979, Florence, SPES, 1981, fig. 181¬: mentions the version in the Florentine art market, said to be by the school of Donatello. Pope-Hennessy 1993 John Pope-Hennessy, Donatello Sculptor, New York, London and Paris, Abbeville Press, 1993, p. 269: after Donatello. Jolly 1998 Anna Jolly, Madonnas by Donatello and his Circle, Frankfurt am Main et al., Peter Lang, 1998, p. 129 cat. 32.1: after Donatello, later 1450s. The version in the Victoria and Albert Museum is not autograph; Inv. SKS 67 is closer to the lost original. Kessler 2000 Hans-Ulrich Kessler in Régine Bonnefoit and Hartmut Krohm (eds.), Skulpturen der Gotik und Renaissance. Die ehemalige Sammlung des Justizrats Dr. Gerhart Bollert, exh. cat. (Berlin, Kulturforum, 30 June-1 October 2000), Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2000, p. 210: compared to the version formerly in the Bollert collection. Bellandi and Di Natale 2006 Alfredo Bellandi and Pietro Di Natale, in Vittorio Sgarbi (ed.), Domenico di Paris e la scultura a Ferrara nel Quattrocento, Milan, Skira, 2006, p. 108: related to the “Ferrara Madonna” (see Inv. SKS 2634). Comment This relief represents the Virgin praying in front of her Child; the latter is seated on a chair and gently reaches out with his right hand to his mother’s hands. Above, five cherubs are witnesses to and protectors of the scene. The original colors are exceptionally well preserved: it is possible to see many different textures in the draperies, from the Virgin’s veil which covers her head and reaches to the back of Christ’s seat, to his swaddling clothes, the clouds in the background or the gilt ridge before the frame. Even though the colors are remarkable, the sculptural handling is far from perfect: the figures have a naïve air, while the modeling is rather weak – as one can especially see in the hands of Jesus, which betray that the relief was not modeled but cast in a mold. This composition is known in many other versions, the most famous one being a gilt terracotta in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, whose dimensions exceed by far those of the other versions. The London work has alternatively been taken as the model by Donatello, or a 19th-century copy; it is by far the closest version to the genuine style of Donatello. Other compositions conceived by Donatello are close to this relief, such as the one known as the so-called Ferrara Madonna (one version of which is in Berlin, see Inv. SKS 2634) or even the Holy Family (see Inv. SKS 60). Even though the Berlin relief does not have the quality of a work by Donatello, it bears witness to the wide diffusion of one of his inventions.  Neville Rowley (24 February 2016)

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Diese Madonna mit Kind zwischen zwei Engeln wurde 2018 mit Unterstützung der Bank of America restauriert. Das Werk könnte eine der ersten Skulpturen von Luca della Robbia sein, einem der bedeutendsten Künstler des florentinischen Quattrocento, bevor er die glasierte Terrakotta-Technik erfand.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Das ovale Relief gehört wie sein Pendant (Inv. M 210) zu den wenigen in Marmor ausgeführten Stillleben. Es zeigt eine Ansammlung toter, an einem Ring aufgehängter Meerestiere. In der Mitte die scherenlose Languste, um die weitere Fische wie u.a. ein Hecht, eine Dorade und zwei Rochen dekorativ arrangiert sind. Die Darstellung schildert eindrücklich den Artenreichtum des Elements Wasser, während das bereits erwähnte Pendant mit der Darstellung von Vögeln das Element Luft widerspiegelt. Die Gattung des Stillebens erfreute sich in der Malerei des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts aufgrund ihrer täuschend echten Wiedergabe großer Beliebtheit. Unser Bildhauer, der vermutlich im Umkreis von Jean Baptiste Houdon zu suchen ist, stellte sich hier der Herausforderung, die farbigen Vorbilder mit den Mitteln seiner Kunst - einem monochromen, jedoch dreidimensionelen Stein - noch zu übertreffen. Indem er nicht nur die Materialität des Panzers der Languste und die Schuppen der Fische nachbildete, sondern auch durch die dreiminsionale Schichtung der Tiere ein bewegtes Schattenspiel erzeugte, gelang es ihm, den leblosen, monochromen Stein zum Leben zu erwecken. Wir haben es hier mit einem so genannten "Paragone" zu tun, womit der Wettkampf der Kunsgattungen gemeint ist, also den Streit, ob die Kunst der Malerei oder die der Skulptur höher zu bewerten sei. Hiermit wird ein bereits seit der Antike überlieferter Wettstreit nachgeeifert, bei der die Künstler die Natur zu übertreffen suchten. Schon der antike Schriftsteller Plinius beschrieb im 35. Buch seiner "Naturalis Historiae" einen Mann namens Possi, der aus Ton Früchte und Trauben schuf, die den echten täuschend ähnlich sahen. Die überzeugende, dreidimensionale Wiedergabe des Bildhauers wurde somit den Werken des antiken Malers Zeuxis gleichgesetzt, dessen gemalte Trauben angeblich sogar die Vögel anlockten.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Das ovale Relief gehört wie sein Pendant (Inv. M 209) zu den wenigen in Marmor ausgeführten Stillleben. Es zeigt eine Ansammlung toter, an einem Ring aufgehängter Vögel. In der Mitte ein an einem Fuß aufgehängtes Rebhuhn, dessen offene Brust mit den geöffneten Flügeln dem Betrachter zugewandt ist. Des weiteren schaut links der Kopf eines Hahns hervor sowie einige kleinere Singvögel, die kunstvoll neben oder übereinander arrangiert sind. Die Darstellung schildert eindrücklich den Artenreichtum des Elements Luft, während das bereits erwähnte Pendant mit der Darstellung von Fischen das Element Wasser widerspiegelt. Die Gattung des Stillebens erfreute sich in der Malerei des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts aufgrund ihrer täuschend echten Wiedergabe großer Beliebtheit. Unser Bildhauer, der vermutlich im Umkreis von Jean Baptiste Houdon zu suchen ist, stellte sich hier der Herausforderung, die farbigen Vorbilder mit den Mitteln seiner Kunst - einem monochromen, jedoch dreidimensionelen Stein - noch zu übertreffen. Indem er nicht nur die Materialität der gefiederten Geschöpfe täuschend nachbildete, sondern auch durch die dreiminsionale Schichtung der Tiere ein bewegtes Schattenspiel erzeugte, gelang es ihm, den leblosen, monochromen Stein zum Leben zu erwecken. Wir haben es hier mit einem so genannten "Paragone" zu tun, womit der Wettkampf der Kunsgattungen gemeint ist, also den Streit, ob die Kunst der Malerei oder die der Skulptur höher zu bewerten sei. Hiermit wird ein bereits seit der Antike überlieferter Wettstreit nachgeeifert, bei der die Künstler die Natur zu übertreffen suchten. Schon der antike Schriftsteller Plinius beschrieb im 35. Buch seiner "Naturalis Historiae" einen Mann namens Possi, der aus Ton Früchte und Trauben schuf, die den echten täuschend ähnlich sahen. Die überzeugende, dreidimensionale Wiedergabe des Bildhauers wurde somit den Werken des antiken Malers Zeuxis gleichgesetzt, dessen gemalte Trauben angeblich sogar die Vögel anlockten. Hans-Ulrich Kessler

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Drei Männer sind auf Leitern damit beschäftigt, den Leichnam Christi vom Kreuz zu nehmen. Am Fuße des Kreuzes steht die wehklagende Magdalena. Die ohnmächtige Maria wird von Frauen gestützt, umringt von Zuschauern.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

After Andrea Guardi ca. 1405-1476 Virgin and Child Painted stucco 83 x 52 cm Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 2012. Bode-Museum, storage. Inscriptions: AVE GRASIA PLENA DOMINUS TECUM (“Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee”, lower frame); ALPHA ET OMEGA (“Alpha et Omega” on the book held by the Christ Child, on the pediment). Provenance Florence (1893); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1893-1904); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1904-1939); Berlin, storage (1939-1945); Soviet Union, secret storage (1945/46-1958); East Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (1958-1990); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (1990-present). Acquisition Anonymous gift, 1893. Restoration 1984. Other Version • Paris, Musée du Louvre, Inv. M.R. 2770. Painted marble, 53.5 x 42.8 x 10.5 cm. Comment The Virgin is praying over the lying, naked body of her son Jesus, whose head and upper back rest on a cushion and who blesses the beholder with his right hand. The composition, enhanced in vivid colors, is inscribed in a niche with antique pilasters. Christ the Judge, blessing with one hand and holding the Bible in the other, is painted on the pediment. The entablature of the tabernacle is lost, and the condition of the relief is problematic: while old photographs document the relief with a bronze patina, additions were made during a restoration in 1987 (especially to the left side of the Virgin’s hands) and much of the relief was repainted. The restoration is especially significant in the history of conservation in East Berlin. While many works that came back from the USSR in 1958 had just been restored with losses left visible as signs of the destruction wrought by “Hitler-fascism”, the praxis of restoration at the end of the Cold War was made in order for the public to enjoy the aesthetic qualities of the works, rather than see them as a document of the latest conflict. The relief had been acquired in 1893 by the Berlin Museums as a replica of a work by Bernardo Rossellino. Schubring 1907a and 1907b linked the composition with a similar marble relief in the Musée du Louvre, which he ascribed to a minor follower of Donatello, Andrea Guardi. While this attribution is beyond doubt today (see Guardi’s Virtues in the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa), it was at first difficult to accept for the Berlin Museums. In the Berlin catalogues, Schottmüller 1913 and 1933 preferred to insist on the links with Donatello: the position of the Virgin with her joined hands, the recumbent Child and the draperies are especially reminiscent of a Holy Family preserved in Berlin (see Inv. SKS 2387). Literature Schubring 1907a Paul Schubring, “Andrea Guardi”, in Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexilon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig, Wilhelm Engelmann, 1907, I, p. 456: Andrea Guardi; disputes the attribution to the “style of Antonio Rossellino” made by the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum. Schubring 1907b Paul Schubring, “Gli acquisti del museo ‘Kaiser Friedrich’”, L’Arte, X, 1907, p. 451: relates the work with the marble relief in the Musée du Louvre, and gives both to Andrea Guardi. Schottmüller 1913 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, p. 27 cat. 58: Florence, ca. 1450; free copy of a relief in the Musée du Louvre, attributed by Schubring to Andrea Guardi; the composition derives from a Holy Family by Donatello in the Berlin Museums (Inv. SKS 2387). Schottmüller 1933 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barock. Erster Band. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz, Ton und Wachs, Zweite Auflage, Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1933, p. 16: follower of Donatello; the ancient polychromy is very darkened; the composition derives from the Holy Family in Berlin (Inv SKS 60); no mention of the attribution to Guardi. Middeldorf 1977 Ulrich Middeldorf, “Quelques sculpteurs de la Renaissance en Toscane occidentale”, Revue de l’Art, 36, 1977, pp. 7-28 now in: idem, Raccolta di scritti that is Collected Writings, III, 1974-1979, Florence, SPES, 1981, p. 148: after Andrea Guardi. Ehlich 1987 Volker Ehlich, “Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungsmethoden. Grundlagen der Restaurierung im Bestand der Skulpturensammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin”, Neue Museums Kunde, XXX, n°3, 1987, pp. 220-222: about the restoration of the work; inappropriate to speak of a stucco technique. Casini 1993 Claudio Casini in Clara Baracchini (ed.), I marmi di Lasinio. La collezione di sculture medievali e moderne nel Camposanto di Pisa, exh. cat. (Pisa, Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, 30 July-31 October 1993), Florence, SPES, 1993, p. 278: Andrea Guardi, 1440s. Neville Rowley (20 May 2016)

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Maria sitzt rechts auf einer Steinbank, das Haupt leicht geneigt und mit beiden Händen ein Buch haltend. Links vor ihr der Engel, auf ein Knie gesunken, in der Linken die Lilie, die Rechte in sprechender Gebärde erhoben. In der Höhe die Taube über einer Wolke schwebend.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Attributed to Donatello and his Workshop The Crucifixion ca. 1460-66 Stucco on wood with remnants of a complete gilding 53.5 x 44.5 cm (with frame) 36.5 x 26.5 cm (without) The frame is original. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 53. Bode-Museum, storage. Provenance Florence, Charles Fairfax Murray (before 1883); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1883-1904); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1904-1939); Berlin, storage (1939-1945); Merkers, storage (1945); Wiesbaden, Central Collecting Point (1945-1956); West Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Museum Dahlem (1956-1997); Berlin, storage (1997-2006); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (since 2006). Acquisition Bought in Florence in 1883 from Charles Fairfax Murray for 5,950 Italian lire, together with Inv. SKS 145 (Man of Sorrows) and Inv. SKS 279 (bronze Horse), and four unidentified plaquettes. Acquisition file (1096/83) in the Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. Bibliography Wilhelm Bode, “Die italienischen Skulpturen der Renaissance in den Königlichen Museen zu Berlin. III”, Jahrbuch der Königlich preußischen Kunstsammlungen, V, 1884, pp. 41-42: workshop of Donatello, after a lost original (possibly in terracotta); close to the pulpits of San Lorenzo, Florence. Wilhelm Bode, Italienische Bildhauer der Renaissance. Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Plastik und Malerei auf Grund der Bildwerke und Gemälde in den Königl. Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, W. Speemann, 1887, pp. 30-31: ancient copy after a lost model by Donatello, in the period of the pulpits of San Lorenzo in Florence; the red frame is authentic. Wilhelm Bode and Hugo von Tschudi, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der Christlichen Epoche, Berlin, W. Spemann, 1888, p. 16 cat. 41: after a model by Donatello, in the period of the pulpits of San Lorenzo in Florence. August Schmarsow, review of Bode and Tschudi 1888, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, XII, 1889, p. 206: not Donatello, as it differs from the San Lorenzo pulpits. Max Semrau, Donatellos Kanzeln in S. Lorenzo. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der italienieschen Plastik im XV. Jahrhundert, Breslau, Schottlaender, 1891, p. 79 note 1: pupil of Donatello, same artist as the Medici Crucifixion in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, and the San Lorenzo pulpits. Stucco version after a model by Donatello. Lord Balcarres, Donatello, London and New York, Duckworth & Co. and Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903, p. 178: genuine sketch by Donatello himself, “sadly injured since its acquisition”; compared to the Forzori Altar in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Inv. 7619:1 to 3-1861). Frida Schottmüller, Donatello. Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis seiner künstlerischen Tat, Munich, F. Bruckmann, 1904, pp. 76, 90, 125. Maud Cruttwell, Donatello, London, Methuen, 1911, p. 68: “rough sketch” by Donatello; close to Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Inv. 7629-1861), with the “same admirable effect of distance and space”. Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, p. 15 cat. 29: after Donatello; from a sketch by Donatello in his late period; the head of the Virgin was lost when the work was at the Altes Museum, Berlin. Arduino Colasanti, Donatello, French trans., Paris, Crès, 1931, pl. CXI: Donatello, mid 1430s, close to the great Crucifixion by Fra Angelico in the convent of San Marco, Florence. Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barock. Erster Band. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz, Ton und Wachs, Zweite Auflage, Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1933, p. 9: Donatello?; probably after a sketch by the artist in his later years; the Virgin’s head was lost when the relief was at the Altes Museum. Hans Kauffmann, Donatello. Eine Einführung in sein Bilden und Denken, Berlin, G. Grote’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1935, pp. 182, 184, 255-256 note 647: Donatello. Ulrich Middeldorf, review of Kauffmann 1935, The Art Bulletin, XVIII, 1936, pp. 570-585 now in: idem, Raccolta di scritti that is Collected Writings. I. 1924-1938, Florence, SPES, 1979-80, p. 245. Rezio Buscaroli, L’arte di Donatello, Florence, Monsalvato, 1942, p. 153 cat. 158: mediocre follower of Donatello. H. W. Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1957, II, p. 244 note 1: not by Donatello, but the model for the Medici Crucifixion in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, also not attributed to Donatello. Luigi Grassi (ed.), Tutta la scultura di Donatello, Milan, Rizzoli, 1958, p. 101: follower of Donatello. Peter Metz, Bildwerke der christlichen Epochen von der Spätantike bis zum Klassizismus aus den Beständen der Skulpturenabteilung der Staatliche Museen, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin-Dahlem, Munich, Prestel, 1966, p. 89 cat. 500: style of Donatello’s late works. Neville Rowley, “Wie man ein Denkmal wird. Wilhelm Bode und die Berliner Museen 1883/84”, in Nikolaus Bernau, Hans-Dieter Nägelke and Bénédicte Savoy (eds.), Museumsvisionen. Der Wettbewerb zur Erweiterung der Berliner Museumsinsel 1883/84, exh. cat. (Berlin, Bauakademie, 16 September–11 October 2015), Kiel, Ludwig, 2015, pp. 89-90. Comment The lower part of this Crucifixion is full of figures, some of them seemingly belonging to a different period from the event represented, such as the monk saint kneeling and embracing the cross of Christ, together with what seems to be a nun on the opposite side. Three holy figures are represented, each with a different sign of mourning: they must be the Virgin, St John and Mary Magdalene – even if their definitive identification remains speculative (see below). Two soldiers are bracketing the composition: one entering from the far right; the other going out through the left edge. One can distinguish other soldiers in the background, such as one crying, just to the right of the Cross. The impression of a receding landscape is given by the diminishing size of the trees. The work was acquired by Wilhelm Bode in 1883 through the English painter and dealer Charles Fairfax Murray, together with other works (Schottmüller 1913 and 1933 wrongly records 1885 for this acquisition). Bode considered the relief a copy after a late work by Donatello, noting the similarities with the pulpits of the church of San Lorenzo in Florence, and especially with the Crucifixion and Deposition reliefs (see Bode 1884; Bode 1885; Bode and Tschudi 1888). This view was sometimes dismissed (Schmarsow 1889), sometimes followed (Schottmüller 1913); but one has to notice that many scholars have also argued for an attribution to Donatello himself (Balcarres 1903; Cruttwell 1911; Colasanti 1931; Kauffmann 1935; and, more tentatively, Schottmüller 1933). After WWII, the work was part of the collection in West Berlin, but presumably kept in storage as it was almost forgotten and only discussed briefly (see Janson 1957, who linked the work with the Medici Crucifixion in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, a connection already made by Semrau 1891; Janson rejected the attribution to Donatello of both works). This relative oblivion can partly be explained by the condition of the work, which has been problematic since its purchase. The stucco surface has severe cracks, while the gilding is widely abraded. Two losses are more important: Christ’s right arm (lost before 1883); and the head of a holy woman (often identified as the Virgin Mary), which was lost in Berlin before 1904 (see Schottmüller 1913). A small-sized engraving of the work before this damage had been published by Bode 1884, p. 41; significantly, no color photographs of the work have been published until yet. Some parts of the relief seem at first glance to have been made separately and added on, such as the soldier on the far left, whose handling is unskillful and who has a darker coloration; of Jesus-Christ, who is almost detached from the relief, unlike the rest of the work (his body is also stylistically weaker than the rest of the anatomies). Even if the Crucifixion has often been judged since its publication by Bode as a replica after another composition, the thinness of the stucco surface makes it clear that it was directly modeled and not molded (this was first noted by Bodo Buczynski in 2014). The fact that no other similar composition exists only underlines the originality of the relief. Various motifs of the work are reminiscent of Donatello. The mourning figure immediately to the right of the cross reminds one of the figures of the Deposition of Christ in the San Lorenzo pulpits, while the melancholy figure to his right, holding his head in his hand, is close to the St John of the bronze Lamentation over the Dead Christ in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (Inv. 8552-1863). The two crosses of the thieves are similar to the lances flanking the bronze Crucifixion in the Musée du Louvre (Inv. OA 6477; the right cross in the present work is indeed topped by what seems to be a sponge, as in the Louvre Crucifixion). It is difficult to identify with certainty the saints attending the drama: St John may be the melancholy figure, Mary Magdalene the one raising her arms, and the Virgin Mary the figure who lost her head, even if the latter two are good candidates to be a St John and a Magdalene (with her long hair, especially underlined by the 1884 etching). At the foot of the cross, the mourning female might also be the Virgin, but also (and more likely) a nun. The other saint kneeling under the cross is dressed as a monk; his dark mantle makes him perhaps a Dominican. This confusing iconography is coherent with Donatello’s habit of producing works with some iconographical ambiguities (for a similar case, related to the bronze relief of the Lamentation in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, see Janson 1957, p. 187). From a stylistic point of view, some parts of the work are of poor quality, such as the soldier on the left; or are not stylistically coherent with Donatello’s oeuvre, such as Christ on the cross. Some other parts, however, are not only directly comparable with Donatello’s work (especially the Forzori Altarpiece in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: Inv. 7619:1 to 3-1861), but they also have the sketchy invention that is typical of the genuine works of the master: hence the idea to show soldiers going out of the frame, to depict expressive faces (the soldier in the mid-distance, between the cross and the ladder), or the decision to hide the right thief behind the ladder are unlikely to come from a mind other than Donatello’s. The landscape is also quite similar to the one in the Medici Crucifixion in the Bargello, a work that recent literature accepts as a genuine work. It is then tempting to think that Inv. SKS 53 is a product of the workshop of Donatello in his later years, with some parts directly modeled by the artist himself. Neville Rowley (11 February 2016)

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Maria in halber Figur, nach rechts gewendet und mit der Linken das nackte Kind an sich ziehend, das auf einem Sockel von rechts her auf sie zuschreitet. Auf dem Sockel zwei schwebende Putten, die einen Kranz zwischen sich halten. - Maria in rotem Gewand und blauem Mantel. Der Untergrund braun.

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Attributed to Donatello Virgin and Child with Five Angels ca. 1445-50 Terracotta with traces of color 22 x 1.5 cm Gilt frame, not original Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS M 88. Bode-Museum, storage. Provenance Florence, Luigi Grassi (1906); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1906-1939); Berlin, storage (1939-1945); Merkers, storage (1945); Wiesbaden, Central Collecting Point (1945-1956); West Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Museum Dahlem (1956-1990); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Museum Dahlem (1990-1997); Berlin, storage (1997-2006); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (since 2006). Acquisition Bought in Florence in 1906 from Luigi Grassi, for 2,440.50 Mark. Property of the Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein. Other Versions • Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 58. • Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Inv. 1810. Marble, 68 x 50 cm. Literature Bode 1907 Wilhelm Bode in Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein zu Berlin. Bericht über das Geschäftsjahr 1906-1907, Berlin, H. S. Hermann, 1907, pp. 15-17: sketch made by Donatello, who left it to his pupils for larger-scale versions. Bode 1908 Wilhelm Bode, “Ein Blick in Donatellos Werkstatt”, Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft, I, n°1-2, January-February 1908, pp. 6-7: sketch made by Donatello. Schottmüller 1913 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, p. 20 cat. 41: sketch for the marble relief in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris. Bode 1921 Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1921, p. 119 fig. 73: Donatello. Wulff 1922 Oskar Wulff, Donatello, Leipzig, E. A. Seemann, 1922, p. 14. Maclagan and Longhurst 1932 Eric Maclagan and Margaret H. Longhurst, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932, p. 25. Schottmüller 1933 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barock. Erster Band. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz, Ton und Wachs, Zweite Auflage, Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1933, pp. 14-15: follower of Donatello; traces of paint; composition made after Inv. KFM 67; the composition is too unclear to be by Donatello. Middeldorf 1938 Ulrich Middeldorf, review of Schottmüller 1933, Rivista d’arte, XX, 1938 now in: idem, Raccolta di scritti that is Collected Writings. I. 1924-1938, Florence, SPES, 1979-80, p. 379: workshop of Donatello. Goldscheider 1947 L. Goldscheider, Donatello, Paris, Phaidon, 1947, p. 39 fig. 118: school of Donatello. Pope-Hennessy 1964 John Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1964, I, pp. 80-81: the related Victoria and Albert Museum relief is after Donatello, but the model is not the present work. Kunstwerke… 1966 Kunstwerke aus dem Besitz des Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Vereins, West Berlien, Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein, 1966, p. 42: follower of Donatello. Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein Berlin… 1972 Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein Berlin. Erwerbungen 1897-1972, n. pl., Adolph Fürst & Sohn, 1972, pp. 70-71 cat. 88: follower of Donatello. La Moureyre-Gavoty 1975 Françoise de La Moureyre-Gavoty, Inventaire des collections publiques françaises. 19. Institut de France. Paris – Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, Édition des Musées Nationaux, 1975, cat. 25: probably Donatello. Avery 1986 Charles Avery, “Donatello’s Madonnas Reconsidered“, Apollo, CXXIV, n°295 (new series), September 1986, pp. 181-182: Donatello, 1455-1460; close to the putti at the base of the Judith and Holophernes in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Neri Lusanna 1986 Enrica Neri Lusanna in eadem and Lucia Faedo (eds.), Il museo Bardini a Firenze. Volume secondo: le sculture, Milan, Electa, 1986, p. 253: the version in the Musée Jacquemart-André is a forgery. Gentilini 1989 Giancarlo Gentilini, in idem and Carlo Sisi (eds.), La scultura. Bozzetti in terracotta, piccoli marmi e altre sculture dal XIV al XX secolo, 1 (Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Collezione Chigi Saracini 4.1), Siena, Palazzo Chigi Saracini, 1989, pp. 89, 94: sketch by Donatello, perhaps unfinished. Schlegel 1989 Ursula Schlegel, Italienische Skulpturen. Ein Gang durch die Berliner Skulpturengalerie, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, 1989, p. 14. Avery 1991 Charles Avery, Donatello. Catalogo completo delle opere, Florence, Cantini, 1991, p. 64 cat. 42: Donatello, 1455-1460; the versions in Berlin and Paris may be later creations. Gentilini 1993 Giancarlo Gentilini in Luciano Bellosi (ed.), Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena 1450-1500, exh. cat. (Siena, Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, 25 April-31 July 1993), Milan, Electa, 1993, p. 181: Donatello. Bode 1997 Wilhelm von Bode “Unveröffentlichte Manuskripte zu den Jahren 1910-1929”, in idem, Mein Leben, Thomas W. Gaehtgens and Barbara Paul eds., Berlin, Nicolai, 1997, I, p. 387; II, p. 344¬: sketch by Donatello, as is Inv. SKS M 113. Keller 1997 Peter Keller, “Katalog der Bildwerke (Skulptur) und des Kunstgewerbes des Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Vereins”, in 100 Jahre Mäzenatentum. Die Kunstwerke des Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Vereins Berlin, Berlin, Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein, 1997, p. 196: follower of Donatello. Jolly 1998 Anna Jolly, Madonnas by Donatello and his Circle, Frankfurt am Main et al., Peter Lang, 1998, pp. 111-112 cat. 21.4: follower of Donatello, 1460s; possibly Bertoldo di Giovanni; head of the Virgin close to the bust of a Bacchante in the Museo archeologico, Florence, Inv. 14504. Hoof 2005 Dieter Hoof, Die Engel-Vorstellung vom Kinde, Bochum, Verlag Dr. Dieter Winkler, 2005, p. 39: Donatello. Gentilini 2007 Giancarlo Gentilini, “La ‘Madonna del Presepe’ ed altre immagini mariane tra Donatello e compagni”, in Giuseppe Adani, Giancarlo Gentilini and Cristina Grimaldi Fava (eds.), La Madonna del Presepe da Donatello a Guercino. Una devozione antica e nuova nella terra di Cento, exh. cat. (Cento, Pinacoteca Civica, 2 December 2007-13 April 2008), Bologna, Minerva Edizioni, 2007, pp. 112, 134 note 32: Donatello, the absence of color betrays this is an original sketch and not a work of devotion. Sarchi 2007 Alessandra Sarchi, “Da Donatello all’allievo: Bartolomeo Bellano e la terracotta”, in Giuseppe Adani, Giancarlo Gentilini and Cristina Grimaldi Fava (eds.), La Madonna del Presepe da Donatello a Guercino. Una devozione antica e nuova nella terra di Cento, exh. cat. (Cento, Pinacoteca Civica, 2 December 2007-13 April 2008), Bologna, Minerva Edizioni, 2007, p. 143: Donatello. Curatorial files in the Bode-Museum Letter from Ursula Schlegel to Françoise de La Moureyre-Gavoty, 21 March 1967: the relief is not by Donatello, but from a later date. Comment This relief was acquired by Wilhelm Bode in 1906 in Florence for the Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein, who is still the owner of the work. From 1881, the Berlin collection possessed a relief in marble with a similar composition (see Inv. SKS 58; it has been lost since 1945). The latter relief, as well as a similar one made by a different artist (and now in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris), has always been attributed to the school of Donatello, as the physiognomic exaggerations seem to speak against the master himself. The present relief was immediately published by Bode as a work by Donatello: the sketchiness was interpreted as typical of a model quickly made by the master and given to his assistants as a guide for the two known reliefs (see Bode 1907; Bode 1908). Even though the relief has often been forgotten in monographs dedicated to Donatello, some scholars have continued to consider it a work by the hand of the master (Avery 1991; Gentilini 1993 and 2007). The quality of the relief is very high: even if the space is not clearly delineated, one has the impression of seeing various forms suddenly emerge from the raw material of the terracotta. Around the Virgin and Child, five angels are rendered in a sketchy manner but with lively attitudes: the pair at the top have full cheeks as they blow their horns, both angels in the the middle right are reading a book, while the one at the left points to the Child in the lower right, who, like the angels, is an assemblage of disjectae membrae: a head, two arms, only the right leg – but the ensemble seems coherent at first sight. As for the Virgin, her monumental face and right arm dwarf her leg, which is bent over a faldstool (on this motif, recurrent in Donatello’s oeuvre, see Inv. SKS 2431). This license with anatomy and space is the reason why the relief was unsatisfyingly copied in the two known compositions in marble; on a smaller scale, the work gains in dynamism thanks to this sketchiness . A singular detail in that sense is the position of the Virgin’s hands: while the right arm is raised as if in a praying gesture (such as in the Madonna della seggiola type, see Inv. SKS 67), the left hand is lowered to caress the cheek and neck of the Child. All these imaginative and surprising aspects can be attributed to only one artist: Donatello himself. Inv. SKS M 88 is probably one of the earliest preserved bozzetti in the history of Italian sculpture. Some motifs of the work, such as the angel on the left, recur in other works by the circle of Donatello (see Inv. SKS 2384). The question remains whether the Berlin work may have served as a model for other compositions, or if the motive derives from a drawing. As no drawing unanimously ascribed to Donatello is preserved, the former hypothesis seems the more probable. It is reasonable to think of Donatello formulating his compositions not so much through drawings, then an uncommon praxis for sculptors, but by modeling the forms directly. This would explain the plasticity that we feel in many works by the artist, and in Inv. SKS M 88 in particular. Neville Rowley (24 May 2016)

Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst

Maria, in halber Figur, Kopf u. Schultern von einem griechischen Mantel bedeckt, hält in der Linken das Kind. Auf dem Sockel sind die Worte "Ave Maria" geschrieben. Zwei Wappen.