Renaissance Rarity Acquired by Kimbell Art Museum
Sunday March 12, 2006
Donatello's Borromeo Madonna in Texas
By Stan Parchin
Sunday, March 12, 2006
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas recently purchased The Borromeo Madonna (ca. 1450), attributed to Italian Renaissance master sculptor Donatello (ca. 1386/87-1466). Part of a Sotheby's New York auction on Thursday, January 26, 2006, the terracotta work fetched a reported $4,444,000.00 (US). In the United States, the Kimbell's acquisition complements Donatello's marble Madonna of the Clouds (ca. 1425-35), owned by Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
Born and employed in Florence, Italy, Donatello was the prodigious student of renowned goldsmith and sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455). He also worked in Padua from 1443 to 1453. It was there that Donatello produced his famous bronze Equestrian Monument to Gattamelata (1445-50), a condottiere or hired Italian mercenary, on horseback. The statue is presently located in the Piazza del Santo, Padua.
Donatello sculpted The Borromeo Madonna around 1450, one of the finest works of the Quattrocento. Executed in terracotta, the work depicts a half-length Virgin Mary and adoring infant Jesus. Mary holds Jesus in her arms, resting him on her right hip. In a poignant moment, the Virgin reflects solemnly upon the Son of God, acknowledging his eventual fate. Donatello imbued the sculpture with a sense of naturalism by the lovingly gentle touch of cheeks between mother and child as no other sculptor had done before him. This work in low relief is between one and four inches in width. Donatello masterfully shaped the Virgin Mary's cloak to provide the viewer with a convincing visual illusion of depth. This gives the relief an astonishing sense of perceived spiritual immediacy, rarely seen in Italian sculpture before the end of the Middle Ages.
At least ten layers of stucco and overpaint, accumulated over the last 500 years, were removed from The Barromeo Madonna, revealing the sculpture as a rediscovered work attributable to Donatello's late style. The heavy treatment of the Virgin's clothing is remarkably similar to the intertwined hair and drapery of Donatello's emotionally expressive Saint Mary Magdalene (ca. 1457). After restoration and upon close inspection, the artist's evident mastery of anatomy and pose has convinced many scholars of Italian Renaissance sculpture that The Borromeo Madonna is indeed a work of Donatello's hand.
Sold in 1902 to purchase an organ for the Church of San Giovanni Battista (from where The Borromeo Madonna originally came), a plaster copy of Donatello's masterpiece presently resides in its place.
Photo credit:
Attributed to Donatello (Donato di Niccolò Betto Bardi) (Italian, 1386/87-1466)
Borromeo Madonna, ca. 1450
Terracotta
H. 32 1/2 in. (81.2 cm)
© Kimbell Art Museum
By Stan Parchin
Sunday, March 12, 2006
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas recently purchased The Borromeo Madonna (ca. 1450), attributed to Italian Renaissance master sculptor Donatello (ca. 1386/87-1466). Part of a Sotheby's New York auction on Thursday, January 26, 2006, the terracotta work fetched a reported $4,444,000.00 (US). In the United States, the Kimbell's acquisition complements Donatello's marble Madonna of the Clouds (ca. 1425-35), owned by Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
Born and employed in Florence, Italy, Donatello was the prodigious student of renowned goldsmith and sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455). He also worked in Padua from 1443 to 1453. It was there that Donatello produced his famous bronze Equestrian Monument to Gattamelata (1445-50), a condottiere or hired Italian mercenary, on horseback. The statue is presently located in the Piazza del Santo, Padua.
Donatello sculpted The Borromeo Madonna around 1450, one of the finest works of the Quattrocento. Executed in terracotta, the work depicts a half-length Virgin Mary and adoring infant Jesus. Mary holds Jesus in her arms, resting him on her right hip. In a poignant moment, the Virgin reflects solemnly upon the Son of God, acknowledging his eventual fate. Donatello imbued the sculpture with a sense of naturalism by the lovingly gentle touch of cheeks between mother and child as no other sculptor had done before him. This work in low relief is between one and four inches in width. Donatello masterfully shaped the Virgin Mary's cloak to provide the viewer with a convincing visual illusion of depth. This gives the relief an astonishing sense of perceived spiritual immediacy, rarely seen in Italian sculpture before the end of the Middle Ages.
At least ten layers of stucco and overpaint, accumulated over the last 500 years, were removed from The Barromeo Madonna, revealing the sculpture as a rediscovered work attributable to Donatello's late style. The heavy treatment of the Virgin's clothing is remarkably similar to the intertwined hair and drapery of Donatello's emotionally expressive Saint Mary Magdalene (ca. 1457). After restoration and upon close inspection, the artist's evident mastery of anatomy and pose has convinced many scholars of Italian Renaissance sculpture that The Borromeo Madonna is indeed a work of Donatello's hand.
Sold in 1902 to purchase an organ for the Church of San Giovanni Battista (from where The Borromeo Madonna originally came), a plaster copy of Donatello's masterpiece presently resides in its place.
Photo credit:
Attributed to Donatello (Donato di Niccolò Betto Bardi) (Italian, 1386/87-1466)
Borromeo Madonna, ca. 1450
Terracotta
H. 32 1/2 in. (81.2 cm)
© Kimbell Art Museum
Comments
No comments yet. Leave a Comment