Virgin and Child circa 1470, workshop of ntonio Rossellino (1427 – 1479)

Antonio Rossellino (Settignano 1427 - Firenze 1479), workshop.

Virgin with Child (known as “dell’Ermitage” type), circa 1470.
Painted in polychromy and gold stucco reflief, 87x49 cm, within a Florentine carved and gilded wooden frame, 105x40 cm.
Condition:
Excellent condition for this type of item, with minor wear and tear due to age and use.

Comparative bibliography:
G. Gentilini, From Relief to Painting. The Madonna of the Candelabra by Antonio Rossellino, Florence 2008;

E. Belli, Bardini Madonnas. Marian Reliefs of the Second Fifteenth Century in Florence, Florence 2017, pp. 82-85 no. I.2

The Virgin is depicted seated on a faldstool, holding the Child on her lap. She is set within a typically Renaissance-style aedicule, consisting of two pilasters with capitals decorated with candelabras, supporting a linear architrave. The architrave is surmounted by an arch with a rich cymatium and two harpy heads on the sides. On the slightly projecting base is a small coat of arms painted in polychrome and gold.

The relief belongs to a popular typology, well known to critics, long since unanimously traced back to a model by Antonio Rossellino—perhaps an autograph marble, lost or difficult to identify—of which numerous stucco versions and a few terracotta versions (but also papier-mâché or leather) are known. These versions are typically cast and retouched with a stick, and exhibit some variations in format, the clothing of Mary and the Child, the shape and arrangement of the festoon, and the armrest of the faldstool. However, the greatest differences lie in the shape and ornamentation of the sumptuous frames, usually integral with the image (although some examples lack them), often in the form of a tabernacle decorated with various motifs (candelabra pilasters with volute capitals, base friezes with vases and racemes, cornucopias, dolphins, Marian inscriptions, cymatiums with griffins in the tympanum, and striking harpies as acroteria).