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Lot Essay
This relief is both technically dazzling and refreshingly informal and embodies the best qualities of Florentine 15th century sculpture. As was noted when the present relief was sold at Sotheby’s in 2007, Desiderio probably worked with Donatello early in his career and the attribution to Settignano is based on two documented commissions, the tomb of Carlo Marsuppini in S. Croce and the tabernacle of the sacrament in S. Lorenzo, both in Florence. The Marsuppini tomb, with angels bearing garlands, with faces seemingly imbued with life, the sarcophagus with wandering leafy tendrils and fluttering ribbons and the ribbon and garland base, all embody Desiderio’s obsession with decorative detail and his ability to create exuberant, living forms out of marble.
As was also noted when the present relief was sold in 2007, Coonin notes (op.cit., p.17) that the present relief is associated with the celebrated tabernacle that Desiderio executed for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence (the church was destroyed and the tabernacle dismantled in 1784). The tabernacle has been described in detail as having multiple reliefs of putti adorning its base. However, the sculptor created many documented decorative ensembles, now lost, including the base for Donatello’s bronze David for the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici, two water basins and one chimneypiece commissioned through the art dealer Bartolomeo Serragli and two windows above the loggia of a home owned by the Ghiberti family.
As was also noted when the present relief was sold in 2007, Coonin notes (op.cit., p.17) that the present relief is associated with the celebrated tabernacle that Desiderio executed for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence (the church was destroyed and the tabernacle dismantled in 1784). The tabernacle has been described in detail as having multiple reliefs of putti adorning its base. However, the sculptor created many documented decorative ensembles, now lost, including the base for Donatello’s bronze David for the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici, two water basins and one chimneypiece commissioned through the art dealer Bartolomeo Serragli and two windows above the loggia of a home owned by the Ghiberti family.