15th Gilt and Polychrome Stucco relief, Luca della Robbia’s workshop

Madonna and Child, polychrome stucco relief, Luca della Robbia’s workshop. Second half of the 15th century.
Modeled half-length, the Child holding his mother’s veil in one hand, the other on his back, the Madonna grabbing his foot.
This intimate composition was one of the most appreciated by Luca della Robbia; Allan Marquand has listed nine versions, including the example in the Corsini Collection in Florence. Versions are also found in the carved jamb of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and in the vault of a cloister of Santa Maria di Castello in Genoa. The production of Luca’s early years was terracotta pigmented with natural colors, it was only after 1440 that he began to devote himself to glazed terracotta.
The iconography of the Madonna holding the foot of Christ and of Christ grasping the mother’s veil, popular in Italian Renaissance table painting and sculpture, derives from Byzantine icons.
This kind of reliefs enjoyed an extraordinary fortune in fifteenth-century Italy: molded from marble sculptures or, more often, in terracotta by means of a plaster imprint taken from the original, they were then finished by the sculptor and finally painted and gilded. The role of the painter was fundamental: by highlighting the clothes or hair with gold, lighting up the eyes, giving life to the complexions, the brush helped to accentuate the sweet and affectionate character that invariably distinguishes these compositions. The result is a tone of close naturalism, of family intimacy which must have constituted the most irresistible attraction of this brand new generation of sacred images, which soon came to undermine the role played by triptychs and altarpieces with a Marian subject in domestic devotion. Studies around this branch of Renaissance sculpture have highlighted Tuscany as the epicenter of this very particular production.
Our stucco relief features a clearly legible and embossed pattern, which testifies to the fact that it is one of the first replicas of the original. The polychromy has been well preserved: the incarnates have been maintained as have the colors of the clothes and, in particular, the beautiful gold decoration of the Child’s dress, whose wealth indicates a prestigious commission.
The relief has undergone a conservative restoration including cleaning and consolidation of the original colors at the Nike laboratory in Florence, specialized in sculptural restoration at the service of the Florentine museum center.

It is accompanied by the restoration report.

Measures
Height cm 39
Width cm 25,5
Maximum thickness cm 9/10