This beautiful, large terracotta relief represents a significant survival among the oeuvre of Donatello’s circle and followers. Published as part of his seminal discussions of Donatello’s Madonnas by Wilhelm Bode (op. cit.), the relief finds numerous compositional and stylistic parallels in works associated with the Renaissance master, whilst depicting a rare subject – the Virgin nursing the Christ Child.

The partially polychromed terracotta relief of the Virgin and Child is set against a plain, blue painted background. The Virgin is shown in three-quarter profile, wearing a veil covering her ear, and a blue mantle over a red dress. Her head is lowered towards the Christ Child, who is nursing at her exposed left breast, which she holds with her right hand, while supporting the Child with her left. Dressed in a loose garment falling from his shoulder, the Child clutches the Virgin’s right hand and wrist with both his hands in a tender and naturalistic gesture.

The difficulty of assessing the extensive group of Madonna reliefs by Donatello and his circle has often been noted. Donatello’s vast influence in his native Tuscany and beyond, the frequent reproduction of such works in various media, and the scarcity of historical records relating to the sculptor’s depictions of the Virgin and Child, have led to a variety of opinions regarding the authorship, dating, and localisation of reliefs associated with the master. The relatively small number of Madonnas that are considered autograph are generally dated either to Donatello’s early Florentine period, in the 1420s and 1430s; his sojourn in Padua between 1443 and 1453; or to his later Florentine period, following his return from Padua.

A relatively uncommon iconography in early Renaissance sculpture, the Virgin nursing the Christ Child (Maria lactans) does not feature in Donatello’s accepted oeuvre. However, several bronze plaquettes (e.g. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, inv. no. 5437-1859, fig. 1), as well as versions in stucco and terracotta, which are presumed to follow a now-lost model by Donatello, show a variant of the present motif. The Virgin is depicted in full profile and leaning forward with her head, while the Christ Child, though dressed and positioned similarly as the present Child, turns his head away from the Virgin’s exposed breast. The compositional and stylistic affinity of the plaquettes with the sculptor’s so-called Pazzi Madonna in Berlin, an early masterpiece dated to the 1420s, have led scholars to propose a dating of Donatello’s presumed design for the Maria lactans in the 1420s and 1430s.

Although clearly related to the plaquette model in subject matter and composition, the present relief finds more convincing stylistic comparisons in works thought to postdate Donatello’s decade in Padua. The bronze roundel in the V&A Museum known as the Chellini Madonna (inv. no. A.1-1976) can be dated confidently to the 1450s, as it was recorded as a gift from the sculptor to his physician in 1456 (though it has been argued that the roundel could have been made earlier, possibly in Padua). It is here that the present Virgin’s pronounced inclination of the head, her three-quarter profile, and her veil are closely paralleled. The Child too is analogous in its pose and facial features, with wide-open eyes framed by prominent lids. Further comparisons can be made with other Madonna reliefs attributed to Donatello which are usually dated to the 1450s, including the magnificent gilt terracotta relief in the V&A Museum (inv. no. 57:1-1867, fig. 2) whose Virgin shows a similar facial type, veil and dress, and the related Piot Madonna in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. RF 3967), of which a stucco variant in the Acton collects ion, Florence (Avery, op. cit., fig. 26) depicts the Child in a near-identical garment as the present relief. The same loose garment falling from the Child’s shoulder is seen in the so-called Ferrara Madonna in Berlin, a terracotta relief attributed to a follower of Donatello in the second half of the 15th century, and possibly based on a model by the master (Bode-Museum, inv. no. SKS 2634, fig. 3). Here the Child relates to the present relief also in its clutching of the Virgin’s right hand. Another composition long associated with Donatello’s direct followers, The Holy Family of which versions exist in the Museo Bardini, Florence (Avery, op. cit., fig. 27) and the Bode-Museum, Berlin (inv. no. SKS 2387), provides a parallel for the present Virgin’s strongly oval facial shape and almond shaped eyes, as well as showing the Child in a similar pose. The present relief’s stylistic proximity to works from Donatello’s later activity in Florence indicate that it is probably the work of a Florentine sculptor who, if not copying an original invention by Donatello, is likely to have been familiar with a variety of the master’s works.

Until 1916 the present relief was in the distinguished collects ion of Adolf von Beckerath, a Berlin-based silk merchant who was regarded as a great connoisseur of Italian Renaissance art. His extensive collects ion included works by Botticelli, Michelangelo and Titian, alongside masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture. Von Beckerath was a personal friend of Wilhelm von Bode, who admired the former’s art-historical understanding. It was Bode (op. cit.) who first associated the relief with Donatello’s circle, comparing it to the terracotta relief from the Florentine Via Pietra Piana (see Avery, op. cit., fig. 29). Although Donatello’s authorship of this composition has been called into question, its stylistic affinity with the present work further substantiates a Florentine origin in the mid-15th century.

RELATED LITERATURE
J. Pope-Hennessy, The Madonna Reliefs of Donatello’, in Apollo, 103, March 1976, pp. 172-19; A. Jolly, Madonnas by Donatello and his Circle, New York, 1998; C. Avery, ‘Donatello’s Madonnas Revisited’, in C. Avery, Studies in Italian Sculpture, London, 2001, pp. 23-60; N. Rowley, entries on SMB-Digital.de for inv. nos. SKS 1028, SKS 2387, SKS 2634 and SKS 2431, 2016