Madonna del sacco

Maria sitzt im Profil auf einem niedrigen Polster (Sack?) und greift scherzend mit der Rechten nach dem Hals des nackten Kindes, das nach ihren Fingern greift. Die Mönche seitlich wahrscheinlich S. Franziskus und Antonius. Etwas zurück halten zwei Engel einen Vorhang empor.

English catalogue entry

Paduan artist?

Virgin and Child between two Angels and Sts Francis and Anthony

(known as the “Madonna del Sacco”)

ca. 1460

Gilt and painted stucco

60 x 59 cm

Inscription: MATER DOMINI.

Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 140.

Bode-Museum, storage.

Provenance

Padua (?; before 1887); Venice, Guggenheim (1887); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1887-1904); 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

Acquired in 1880 in Venice from the dealer Guggenheim, 15,000 lire together with a Florentine Virgin and Child (Inv. SKS 93).

The acquisition file (736/80) is missing from the Zentralarchiv der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.

Exhibition

Schätze der Weltkultur von der Sowjetunion gerettet, East Berlin, Nationalgalerie and Pergamonmuseum, 1958, cat. D 80.

Bibliography

Cavallucci and Molinier 1884

J. Cavallucci and Émile Molinier, Les Della Robbia. Leur vie et leur œuvre d’après des documents inédits, 1884, pp. 34, 260 cat. 345: Luca della Robbia; first sketch for the bronze door of the Sacrestia delle Messe in the Florentine Cathedral; the lateral figures interfere with the clarity of the scene and the composition was abandoned.

Bode 1885

Wilhelm Bode, “Die Italienischen Skulpturen der Renaissance in den Königlichen Museen zu Berlin. V. Die Florentiner Tonbilder in den ersten Jahrzehnten des Quattrocento. Luca della Robbia”, Jahrbuch der königlich preußischen Kunstsammlungen, IV, 1885, pp. 180-181: Luca della Robbia, ca. 1450; replica from a bronze original; the blond angels are of “Aryan race”.

Bode 1887

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. 72-75: Luca della Robbia.

Bode and Tschudi 1888

Wilhelm Bode and Hugo von Tschudi, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der Christlichen Epoche, Berlin, W. Spemann, 1888, p. 37 cat. 114, pl. VI: Luca della Robbia, ca. 1450. The bronze patina means it was conceived as a decoration in this material.

Bode 1889

Wilhelm Bode, “Luca della Robbia ed i suoi precursori in Firenze”, Archivio storico dell’arte, II, 1889, p. 6: Luca della Robbia; the saints are probably Francis and Anthony; old bronze color; wooden frame is original with the work; ca. 1450; after a model for a bronze cast.

Reymond 1898

Marcel Reymond, La Sculpture florentine. Première moitié du XVe siècle, Florence, Alinari, 1898, pp. 233, 235 fig.: follower of Donatello in Padua.

Bode 1892-1905

Wilhelm Bode, Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas, Munich, Brückmann, 1892-1905, p. 76 and pl. 217b: Luca della Robbia.

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. 39 cat. 91: Luca della Robbia.

Wulff 1917

Oskar Wulff, “Ein verkanntes Frühwerk von Luca della Robbia und des Künstlers Werdegang”, Jahrbuch der königlich Preußischen Kunstssammlungen, XXXVIII, 1917, pp. 235-236, 252: Donatello under the influence of Luca della Robbia.

Bode 1921

Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1921, p. 111: Donatello.

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. 103: Paduan, late 15th-century; Giovanni Minelli?

Middeldorf 1956

Ulrich Middeldorf, “Ein Jugendwerk des Amadeo”, in Wolfgang Braunfels (ed.), Kunstgeschichtliche Studien für Hans Kauffmann, Berlin, Mann, 1956, p. 140 note 26: Donatellesque, and perhaps Paduan.

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 80: Paduan, 15th century.

Katalog der Originalabgüsse… 2000

Katalog der Originalabgüsse. Heft 6. Christliche Epochen. Spätantike. Byzanz. Italien. Freiplastik. Reliefs. Bronzestatuetten, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2000, cat. 2660: Paduan, 2nd half of the 15th century.

Rowley 2015

Neville Rowley, “À la recherche des Donatello perdus, de Florence à Berlin”, Figura, 2015 (http://figura.art.br/revista/studi-vari/studi-vari-3/4-a-la-recherche-des-donatello-perdus-de-florence-a-berlin/), fig. 10: circle of Donatello, ca. 1460.

Comment

The Virgin is seated almost on the ground and Jesus is lying on her lap, while she is supporting his head with her left hand, gently tickling him with the other hand. Both figures are protected by a cloth of honor raised by two angels; on each side stands a Franciscan saint – certainly the most reknowned ones, Francis and Anthony. Albeit darkened, the colors are vivid, enhanced by gold in many parts of the representation. The “seat” of the Virgin has been identified with a bag, hence connecting the representation to the iconographic type of the “Madonna del sacco” (i.e. the “Virgin of the bag”); the bag is a metonymy of the Flight to Egypt of the Holy Family, notably in paintings by Perugino or Andrea del Sarto. It is, however, difficult to identify the object with certainty.

During the late 19th century, the work was covered with a bronze patina that was thought to be ancient. This is one of the reasons why the relief was identified as a model in imitation bronze made by Luca della Robbia (with the help of Michelozzo) for the doors of the Sagrestia delle Messe in the Florentine Cathedral (Cavallucci and Molinier 1884; the work was however not entirely patinated in bronze, as Bode 1885 speaks of the blond hair of the angels, while the cast in the Gipsformerei is fully colored). It is true that the triptych-like composition of the reliefs of the bronze door are not so far from our work; however, they differ in style, size and composition. The attribution to Luca della Robbia remained popular among scholars from Bode 1885 to Schottmüller 1913; but Wulff 1917 proposed an attribution to Donatello, under the influence of Luca della Robbia – and was followed by Bode 1921. One can understand this attribution, as the pose of the Virgin is indeed similar to the one of a gilt bronze tondo by Donatello preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (see Inv. SKS M 7 for a replica). The foreshortening of the body of Christ and the left hand of the Virgin are also typical of Donatello.

Some other aspects, however, are too unsatisfactory to attribute the work to Donatello himself: no anatomic consistency can be found in the Virgin’s left arm or the angels’ arms holding the curtains. Furthermore, the canopy is not covering the Virgin and Child (as should have been the intention of the artist), while the attendant saints seem too tall in such a composition. This combination of Donatellesque and more hesitant motifs raises the possibility that the work may be an assemblage of several original motifs or a copy after a lost original by Donatello (see Inv. SKS 1033 for another addition of Franciscan saints to a plaquette representing the Virgin and Child). As the two saints flanking the composition are in all likelihood Sts Francis and Anthony, and as the work allegedly comes from Padua, there is reason to believe that the relief was originally created in the cultural area of the Franciscan basilica of Sant’Antonio, where Donatello has been continuously working between 1443 and 1454. The attribution of Reymond 1898 to a Paduan follower of Donatello seems then still all the more valid.

Neville Rowley (24 February 2016)