Maria mit Kind im Stühlchen / Virgin and Child with Cherubs (known as the Madonna della seggiola)

Madonna mit dem Kind im Stühlchen. Es ist auf einem Kissen an ein gemustertes Tuch gelehnt. Die Rechte schiebt es zwischen die Hände der anbetenden Mutter. Oben fünf Cherubim und weiße Wolken, hinter denen Lichtstrahlen hervorbrechen.

English catalogue entry

After Donatello

Virgin and Child with Cherubs (known as the Madonna della seggiola)

ca. 1450-60

Painted stucco

59 x 39 cm

Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 67.

Bode-Museum, on view.

Provenance

Florence (before 1880); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1880-1904); 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 Florence in 1880.

Other versions

• Florence, Museo Bardini, Inv. 1193. Painted stucco, 55 x 40 cm, tabernacle height : 116 cm.

• London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. 57-1867. Gilt terracotta, 74.3 x 55.9 cm. Purchased in Florence from Gagliardi (100 pounds).

• Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Inv. 1762. Terracotta, height: 43 cm.

• Formerly Berlin, Adolf von Beckerath collection. His sale, Berlin, 20-21 November 1916, lot 164.

• Formerly Berlin, Gerhardt Bollert collection. 67.5 x 47 x 6 cm, now Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum.

• Formerly Cologne, Heinrich Neuerberg collection. Photo Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz: 173537.

• Formerly Florence, Art market (see Middeldorf 1978).

• Formerly Florence, Raoul Tolentino collection. His sale, New York, 1920.

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, pp. 19-20 cat. 53, pl. II: school of Donatello. Same pupil of Donatello as the author of the Madonna di via Pietrapiana in Florence. Other versions in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and in a private collection, Paris.

Semrau 1891

Max Semrau, Donatellos Kanzeln in S. Lorenzo. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der italienieschen Plastik im XV. Jahrhundert, Breslau, Schottlaender, 1891, p. 142 note 2.

Bode 1894

Wilhelm Bode, Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas, Munich, F. Bruckmann, 1894, II, pl. 98: after the work by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Inv. 57-1867).

Bode 1902

Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1902, pp. 109-110: after the terracotta by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Balcarres 1903

Lord Balcarres, Donatello, London and New York, Duckworth & Co. and Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903, pp. 182-183: after a lost work by Donatello; the Virgin and Child in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Inv. 57-1867) is a forgery, possibly by the 19th century sculptor Giovanni Bastianini (as is the Piot Madonna in the Musée du Louvre; Inv. RF 3967).

Bode 1892-1905

Wilhelm Bode, Denkmäler der Renaissance-Skulptur Toscanas, Munich, Brückmann, 1892-1905, pp. 32-33, pl. 98: school of Donatello, after the similar work in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Inv. 57-1867), an original relief despite it the fact it is considered a forgery by its institution.

Schubring 1907

Paul Schubring, Donatello. Des Meisters Werke in 277 Abbildungen, Stuttgart and Leipzig, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1907, p. 174: school 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. 21-22 cat. 45: workshop of Donatello; reduced copy after the terracotta in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Inv. 57-1867), which is a masterpiece unrightfully attributed to Bastianini.

Bode 1921

Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1921, p. 124 fig. 78: follower of Donatello.

Maclagan and Longhurst 1932

Eric Maclagan and Margaret H. Longhurst, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1932, p. 23.

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, p. 14: workshop of Donatello; close to a Virgin and Child in Berlin (Inv. SKS 2634); the similar version in the Victoria and Albert Museum has been seen by Bode as a model for a bronze relief but is a forgery by Giovanni Bastianini.

Buscaroli, 1942

Rezio Buscaroli, L’arte di Donatello, Florence, Monsalvato, 1942, p. 149 cat. 97: Andrea Guardi?

Pope-Hennessy 1959 ed. 1968

John Pope-Hennessy, “Some Donatello Problems”, Studies in the History of Art Dedicated to William E. Suida on His Eightieth Birthday, London, Phaidon Press, 1959, pp. 62, 63 fig. 17 now in idem, Essays on Italian Sculpture, London and New York, Phaidon, 1968, p. 61¬-62, fig. 60: workshop of Donatello; original by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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. 77: after Donatello, original by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Negri Arnoldi 1970

Francesco Negri Arnoldi, “Scultura italiana al Victoria and Albert Museum. II”, Commentari, XXI, 1970, pp. 206-207: the work is a forgery.

Pope-Hennessy 1976 ed. 1980

John Pope-Hennessy, “The Madonna Reliefs of Donatello”, Apollo, CIII, n° 169, March 1976 now in: idem, The Study and Criticism of Italian Sculpture, New York and Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 99-100: after the relief by Donatello in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Bennett and Wilkins 1984

Bonnie A. Bennett and David G. Wilkins, Donatello, Oxford, Phaidon, 1984, p. 127.

Neri Lusanna 1986

Enrica Neri Lusanna in eadem and Lucia Faedo (eds.), Il museo Bardini a Firenze. Volume secondo: le sculture, Milan, Electa, 1986, p. 254: after Donatello?

Middeldorf 1978

Ulrich Middeldorf, “Some Florentine Painted Madonna Reliefs”, in Collaboration in Italian Renaissance Art, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1978, pp. 77-84 now in: idem, Raccolta di scritti that is Collected Writings, III, 1974-1979, Florence, SPES, 1981, fig. 181¬: mentions the version in the Florentine art market, said to be by the school of Donatello.

Pope-Hennessy 1993

John Pope-Hennessy, Donatello Sculptor, New York, London and Paris, Abbeville Press, 1993, p. 269: after Donatello.

Jolly 1998

Anna Jolly, Madonnas by Donatello and his Circle, Frankfurt am Main et al., Peter Lang, 1998, p. 129 cat. 32.1: after Donatello, later 1450s. The version in the Victoria and Albert Museum is not autograph; Inv. SKS 67 is closer to the lost original.

Kessler 2000

Hans-Ulrich Kessler in Régine Bonnefoit and Hartmut Krohm (eds.), Skulpturen der Gotik und Renaissance. Die ehemalige Sammlung des Justizrats Dr. Gerhart Bollert, exh. cat. (Berlin, Kulturforum, 30 June-1 October 2000), Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2000, p. 210: compared to the version formerly in the Bollert collection.

Bellandi and Di Natale 2006

Alfredo Bellandi and Pietro Di Natale, in Vittorio Sgarbi (ed.), Domenico di Paris e la scultura a Ferrara nel Quattrocento, Milan, Skira, 2006, p. 108: related to the “Ferrara Madonna” (see Inv. SKS 2634).

Comment

This relief represents the Virgin praying in front of her Child; the latter is seated on a chair and gently reaches out with his right hand to his mother’s hands. Above, five cherubs are witnesses to and protectors of the scene. The original colors are exceptionally well preserved: it is possible to see many different textures in the draperies, from the Virgin’s veil which covers her head and reaches to the back of Christ’s seat, to his swaddling clothes, the clouds in the background or the gilt ridge before the frame. Even though the colors are remarkable, the sculptural handling is far from perfect: the figures have a naïve air, while the modeling is rather weak – as one can especially see in the hands of Jesus, which betray that the relief was not modeled but cast in a mold.

This composition is known in many other versions, the most famous one being a gilt terracotta in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, whose dimensions exceed by far those of the other versions. The London work has alternatively been taken as the model by Donatello, or a 19th-century copy; it is by far the closest version to the genuine style of Donatello. Other compositions conceived by Donatello are close to this relief, such as the one known as the so-called Ferrara Madonna (one version of which is in Berlin, see Inv. SKS 2634) or even the Holy Family (see Inv. SKS 60). Even though the Berlin relief does not have the quality of a work by Donatello, it bears witness to the wide diffusion of one of his inventions. 

Neville Rowley (24 February 2016)