ATTRIBUTED TO THE MASTER OF THE MARBLE MADONNAS, CIRCA 1470-1500

Details

A PARCEL-GILT POLYCHROME MARBLE RELIEF OF THE MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED
attributed to the Master of the Marble Madonnas, circa 1470-1500
in a later associated moulded walnut frame, with brass plaque inscribed ANTONIO ROSSELLINO 1427 1429, FLORENCE
19¼in. (49cm) high, 26¾in. (68cm) high, overall

Literature

J. Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1964, I, pp. 151-3.
U. Middeldorf, Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection - European Schools, XIV-XIX Century, 1976, pp. 29-30.
Alfredo Bellandi, 'Master of the Marble Madonnas', catalogue entry in A. Butterfield and A. Radcliffe, Masterpieces of Renaissance Art - Eight Rediscoveries, Salander O'Reilly Gallery, New York, 2001, pp. 34-40.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

This relief is attributable to the 'Master of the Marble Madonnas', a name first given to the anonymous master by Wilhelm von Bode in the late 19th Century. Bode was the first to identify a number of reliefs of the Madonna and Child as all having come from the same hand. They are characterised by a combination of high relief used for the heads of the two figures and low relief employed for the hands and drapery resulting in an almost abstracted fascination with linear patterns across the surface of the marble. A number of different names have been proposed for the authorship of the group including, most recently, Alfredo Bellandi's suggestion that the master might actually be the Florentine sculptor Gregorio di Lorenzo (Bellandi, loc. cit.). No attribution has yet been generally accepted.

Reliefs by the Master exist in a number of museums including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Hermitage and the Museo Nazionale in Florence.

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