After Donatello

Virgin and Child (called the Del Pugliese-Dudley Madonna)

Painted stucco

31.5 x 21 cm

Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. 2627.

Bode-Museum, storage.

Provenance

Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1901-1904); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1904-1939); Berlin, storage (1939-1945); Soviet Union, secret storage (1945/46-1958); East Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (1958-1990); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Bode-Museum (1990-present).

Acquisition

Bought in 1901; gift. Acquisition file n°2701/01 (untraced).

Other versions

• Avignon, Musée Calvet.

• London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. A84-1927. Marble, 27.2 x 16.5 cm. Provenance: Earls of Dudley, Himley Hall (Staffordshire).

• London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. A.3&A-1968. Marble, h: 28.3 cm. Provenance: Gustave Dreyfus collection, Paris.

• New York, Michael Hall Collection. Marble oval, 32.7 x 22.8 x 2.5 cm.

• New York, Michael Hall Collection. Bronze plaque.

• Paris, Musée du Louvre, Inv. RF 583. Sandstone (pietra serena), 29 x 18.5 cm.

Comment

When this work was anonymously given to the Berlin Museums, in 1901, it was attributed to Desiderio da Settignano and linked to another work with a similar composition in the Gustave Dreyfus collection in Paris (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London). The acquisition of a much finer marble version by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1927 (from the Dudley collection, hence its nickname Dudley Madonna) changed the scholarly opinion: the quality of the Dudley Madonna makes it very likely the original work, and the two other versions are probable derivations. The attribution to Desiderio da Settignano for the original creation remained in use until Caglioti 1992 convincingly argued for an attribution of the Dudley Madonna to Donatello himself. In 1550, the Dudley Madonna was most probably paired with a diptych by Fra Bartolomeo in the Del Pugliese collection in Florence. As for the Berlin relief, the dark patina visible in pre-WWII photographs is not original: underneath is a polychromy that seems to date from the 19th century (according to Bodo Buczynski, oral communication, May 2015). Further analysis on this relief may determine if the work dates from the 15th century or later (in early 16th century Florence, the relief was much copied, following its re-interpretation of the Dudley Madonna by the young Michelangelo in his Madonna della scala now in the Casa Buonarroti, Florence).

Literature

Bode 1902

Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1902, p. 195 fig. 85, p. 196: after Desiderio da Settignano.

Schottmüller 1913

Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, p. 57 cat. 132: Desiderio da Settignano; free repetition of the work in the Dreyfus collection in Paris.

Ybl 1931

Erwin Ybl, “La Madone du Musée Calvet d’Avignon. Donatello ou Desiderio?”, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, LXXIII, VI, 1931, p. 298-299: the invention of the relief is by Donatello, but none of the existing versions are by him.

Bode 1921

Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1921, p. 177 fig. 111: Desiderio da Settignano.

Liphart 1924

E. de Liphart, “Le sculpteur Francesco Ferrucci et Léonard de Vinci”, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, LXVI, 1, 1924, p. 4 note 4: cites Bode about the Berlin work, imitation by Desiderio of a marble by Donatello; the marble in the Shaw collection in Boston is by a weak follower of Donatello. In the article, the marble in the Dreyfus collection is attributed to Francesco Ferrucci.

Maclagan and Longhurst 1932

Eric Maclagan and Margaret H. Longhurst, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932, p. 42.

Schottmüller 1933

Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barock. Erster Band. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz, Ton und Wachs, Zweite Auflage, Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1933, pp. 45-46: after Desiderio da Settignano?

Cardellini 1962

Ida Cardellini, Desiderio da Settignano, Milan, Edizioni di Comunità, 1962, p. 247 fig. 300: after Desiderio da Settignano.

Pope-Hennessy 1964

John Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1964, I, p. 138: after Desiderio da Settignano.

Caglioti 1992

Francesco Caglioti in Paola Barocchi (ed.), Il giardino di San Marco. Maestri e compagni del giovani Michelangelo, exh. cat. (Florence, Casa Buonarroti, 30 January-19 October 1992), Milan, Silvana, 1992, pp. 72-78 cat. 14: the Dudley Madonna in the Victoria and Albert Museum is by Donatello; does not cite the Berlin version.

Knuth 2011

Michael Knuth, “Desiderio da Settignano und seinem Umkreis zugeschriebene Bildwerke in Berlin”, in Joseph Connors et al., Desiderio da Settignano, symposium papers (Florence, Kunsthistorisches Institut and Villa I Tatti, 9-12 May 2007), Venice, Marsilio, 2011, p. 196: Florentine, second half of the 15th century?; after Donatello.

Neville Rowley (24 May 2016)

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