Madonna and Child

Florentine School,
19th century
In the style of the first half of the 15th century
Terracotta
H 131 × W 44 × D 20 cm (H 15 ½ x W 17 1/3 x D 7 7/8 inch)

This Florentine terracotta sculpture of the Madonna and Child is a refined historicist evocation of early Quattrocento devotional statuary. The work emulates the visual idiom of the Florentine early Renaissance, particularly the style associated with artists such as Luca della Robbia, Nanni di Banco, and the young Donatello.

The Virgin is shown in a gently swaying contrapposto, her body enveloped in finely modelled drapery that falls in rhythmic folds. The facial features, with their serene idealization, are characteristic of Florentine sculpture around 1420–1440, when humanistic naturalism and spiritual grace were carefully balanced. The tender gesture of the Virgin, who supports the Christ Child close to her body while their faces incline softly toward one another, conveys the affective intimacy central to early Renaissance Marian imagery.

The sculpture is composed in unglazed terracotta, a medium extensively used in 15th-century Florence for both architectural decoration and domestic devotion. The surface retains traces of polychromy and patination.
The sculpture demonstrates a convincing understanding of Quattrocento formal language. In both compositional structure and modelling technique, it reveals the academic rigor of its maker, possibly trained within one of the numerous workshops or ateliers that flourished in Florence under the influence of revivalist movements—particularly those associated with the Accademia di Belle Arti or inspired by the writings of Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle and Crowe.