Die Heilige Familie

English catalogue entry

Northern Italian?

The Holy Family

Papier-mâché

Diameter: 44 cm

Modern frame

Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 61.

Lost since 1945.

Provenance

Found in the storage facilities of the Berlin Museums in 1887; lent from 1918 to the University of Münster; whereabouts unknown since the bombing of 10 October 1943.

Acquisition

Unknown.

Other versions

• London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. 4-1890. Stucco, 66.5 x 66.5 cm with frame with four prophets (or apostels). Purchased from Stefano Bardini, Florence (39 pounds).

• Paris, Musée du Louvre. Stucco (as recorded by Schottmüller 1913; the work cannot presently be identified).

Bibliography

Bode and Tschudi 1888

Wilhelm Bode and Hugo von Tschudi, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der Christlichen Epoche, Berlin, W. Spemann, 1888, p. 18 cat. 48: school of Donatello.

Bode 1902

Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1902, pp. 119, 120 fig. 52: after Donatello.

Schubring 1907

Paul Schubring, Donatello. Des Meisters Werke in 277 Abbildungen, Stuttgart and Leipzig, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1907, pp. 169, 201: Sienese follower of Donatello.

Schottmüller 1913

Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, pp. 23-24 cat. 49: possibly by the same pupil of Donatello as the author of the Madonna di via Pietrapiana (see Inv. SKS 2431) and of the reliefs in the courtyard of the Medici Palace, Florence. Mentions the versions in London and Paris.

Bode 1921

Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1921, p. 114 fig. 69: after Donatello.

Maclagan and Longhurst 1932

Eric Maclagan and Margaret H. Longhurst, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932, p. 22: derives from a prototype by Donatello.

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. 12-13: workshop of Donatello, ca 1450. After a sketch by Donatello. Same pupil of Donatello as the author of the Madonna di via Pietrapiana (see Inv. SKS 2431) and of the reliefs in the courtyard of the Medici palace, Florence.

Pope-Hennessy 1959

John Pope-Hennessy, “Some Donatello Problems”, in Studies in the History of Art Dedicated to William E. Suida on His Eightieth Birthday, London, Phaidon Press, 1959, pp. 61-62 now in idem, Essays on Italian Sculpture, London and New York, Phaidon, 1968, p. 61: after Urbano da Cortona.

Pope-Hennessy 1964

John Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1964, I, pp. 260-261: after Urbano da Cortona.

Lambacher 2006

Lothar Lambacher (ed.), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Dokumentation der Verluste. Skulpturensammlung. Band VII. Skulpturen. Möbel, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 2006, p. 137: lost since 1945; undocumented during the war.

Gentilini 2007

Giancarlo Gentilini, “La ‘Madonna del Presepe’ ed altre immagini mariane tra Donatello e compagni”, in Giuseppe Adani, Giancarlo Gentilini and Cristina Grimaldi Fava (eds.), La Madonna del Presepe da Donatello a Guercino. Una devozione antica e nuova nella terra di Cento, exh. cat. (Cento, Pinacoteca Civica, 2 December 2007-13 April 2008), Bologna, Minerva Edizioni, 2007, pp. 122-123, 135 note 66: collaborator of Donatello (working in Bologna?).

Gentilini 2008

Giancarlo Gentilini, “La cartapesta nel Rinascimento toscano”, in Raffaele Casciaro (ed.), La scultura in cartapesta. Sansovino, Bernini e i Maestri leccesi tra tecnica e artificio, exh. cat. (Milan, Museo diocesano, 15 January-30 March 2008; Lecce, Museo provinciale “Sigismondo Castromediano”, 18 April-15 June 2008), Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana, 2008, p. 32: Paduan or Sienese follower of Donatello.

Comment

The Holy Family is here represented just after the birth of Christ, who lies almost in the exact center of the composition, flanked by an ox and an ass, whose heads are emerging from the cave where the delivery took place. The Virgin rests on the left side, while Joseph is on the other side, almost detached from the scene (his cane makes him look like a flute player). Behind the cave, on the left, a shepherd observes the scene. The relief is thus a compilation of different moments: the Nativity, the Adoration of the Ass and Ox, and the Adoration of the Sheperds.

This relief was found in the storage facilities of the Berlin Museums in 1887, with no knowledge of its provenance (one can suppose that it was bought in Italy by Gustaav Waagen in 1842, the main campaign of acquisition of Italian sculptures before Wilhelm Bode began to work for the Berlin Museums in 1872). The work was subsequently lent to the University of Münster; it has been lost since WWII. However, a letter by Martin Wackernagel in the Berlin Zentralarchiv (SMB-ZA, I/GG Nr. 231) dated 24 August 1947 stipulates that the work had survived the bombing of 10 October 1943 (I owe this information to Dr. Eckhard Kluth).

This relief recalls a composition known in two (inverted) versions represented in the Berlin Museums, which have often been connected with Donatello and his school (see Inv. SKS 60 and Inv. SKS 2387). The average quality of Inv. SKS 61 and its technique in papier-mâché (generally used for repeating an existing composition) makes its attribution problematic. The propositions of Giancarlo Gentilini, who thought of a follower of Donatello active in Bologna (Gentilini 2007), in Siena or Padua (Gentilini 2008) exemplify these difficulties. Gentilini 2007 made, however, an interesting connection between this relief and another, still preserved in Berlin and representing the Agony in the Garden (see Inv. SKS 70).

Neville Rowley (24 February 2016)