POSSIBLY SECOND HALF 15TH CENTURY, FLORENTINE

This Madonna and Child relates quite closely to two further examples that have been attributed to Ghiberti by Valentiner then more recently reattributed to the youthful hand of Donatello by Bellosi, Schlegal and others (Italian Renaissance Sculpture in the Time of Donatello, exhib. cat. Detroit Institute of Arts, 23 October 1985 - 5 January 1986 and Kimball Art Museum, 22 February 1986 - 27 April 1986). The first example in the Detroit Institute of Arts (Ibid, cat. no. 13) is perhaps the closest match to the present figure in the more athletic stance of the Child whose legs are set in a strongly inverted V-form. The second example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (J. Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1964, vol. I, cat. no. 54, and vol. II, plate 66).

All three examples depict a youthful, enthroned Madonna similarly cloaked and cowled holding the nude or semi-nude standing Christ child to the right. The present example differs in detail, for example the treatment of the Madonna's hair cascading out of her cowl, the lack of a tassled border to the cloak across her left shoulder, the clearly delineated X-frame lion's footed stool is lacking and neither of the other two examples have the integral molded plinth base the present group does. The shared sweet portrayal of the Madonna's face, the modelling of her left hand, the stretched folds of drapery across her lap and the overall composition, never-the-less, aid in tying the three pieces together to suggest a common design origin if not workshop facture.