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Madonna of the Clouds
Donatello (Italian, 1386–1466)
Italian (Florence)
Renaissance
about 1425–35
Object Place: Europe, Florence, Italy
Medium/Technique
Stone; marble
Dimensions
33.1 x 32 cm (13 1/16 x 12 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr. and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton
Accession Number17.1470
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsSculpture
Donatello was one of the most innovative sculptors in the history of European sculpture. He carved this image in flattened relief (rilievo schiacciato), a technique, which he invented, in which a sculptor could create the illusion of volumetric forms set into deep, continuous space with the most subtle and shallow carving. The Madonna sits as if on the ground, to convey the idea of humility, but Donatello sets her in the clouds, so she also becomes Queen of Heaven. A feeling of weighty foreboding is expressed in the Madonna's somber profile, which seems to look into the Christ Child's tragic future.
DescriptionMarble. Madonna and child with angels, cherubs
Provenance1895, sold by Stefano Bardini (dealer; b. 1836 – d. 1922) Florence, to Quincy Adams Shaw (b. 1825 - d. 1908), Boston [see note 1]; 1917, gift of Quincy Adams Shaw, through Quincy Adams Shaw Jr., and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton, to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 29, 1917)
NOTES:
[1] See Lynn Catterson, “Art Market, Social Network and Contamination: Bardini, Bode and the Madonna Pazzi Puzzle,” in Florence, Berlin and Beyond: Late Nineteenth-Century Art Markets and their Social Networks (Leiden and Boston, 2020), pp. 503-4, n. i[i]. The relief's prior history is unknown. Wilhelm von Bode stated that it had been in a church in Rome; see his Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas (Munich, 1892-1905), text vol., p. 42. However, Georg Swarzenski ("Donatello's 'Madonna in the Clouds' and Fra Bartolommeo," Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, vol. 40, no. 240, August, 1942, p. 68) casts serious doubts on Bode's hypothesis.
NOTES:
[1] See Lynn Catterson, “Art Market, Social Network and Contamination: Bardini, Bode and the Madonna Pazzi Puzzle,” in Florence, Berlin and Beyond: Late Nineteenth-Century Art Markets and their Social Networks (Leiden and Boston, 2020), pp. 503-4, n. i[i]. The relief's prior history is unknown. Wilhelm von Bode stated that it had been in a church in Rome; see his Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas (Munich, 1892-1905), text vol., p. 42. However, Georg Swarzenski ("Donatello's 'Madonna in the Clouds' and Fra Bartolommeo," Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, vol. 40, no. 240, August, 1942, p. 68) casts serious doubts on Bode's hypothesis.
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