Madonna hinter der Rampe / The Virgin and Child behind a Balustrade

Relief

Das Kind ist bis zu den Schultern gewickelt. Ihr faltiges Oberkleid ist mit Schriftborten gesäumt. Mittelgruppe einer Komposition, die vollständig als bemaltes Stuckrelief im Kunsthistorischen Museum in Wien erhalten ist. English catalogue entry After Donatello Virgin and Child behind a Balustrade ca. 1450 37 x 29 cm Terracotta, painted in white Ancient frame, not consistent with the relief, with inscriptions: YHS (top) and AVE MARIA (bottom). Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS 59. Lost since May 1945. Provenance Berlin, W. Gumprecht (until 1882); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1882-1904); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1904-1939); Berlin, storage (1939-1945); whereabouts unknown (1945-present). Acquisition Bought in Berlin in 1882 from W. Gumprecht as “school of Donatello” for 1,000 Mark. Other versions • Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum. Provenance: Stefano Bardini, Florence; Benda collection, Vienn •Formerly Florence, private collection. Bibliography Bode 1884 Wilhelm Bode, “Die italienischen Skulpturen der Renaissance in den Königlichen Museen zu Berlin. III”, Jahrbuch der Königlich preußischen Kunstsammlungen, V, 1884, p. 35: school of Donatello. Bode 1887 Wilhelm Bode, Italienische Bildhauer der Renaissance. Studien zur Geschichte der italienischen Plastik und Malerei auf Grund der Bildwerke und Gemälde in den Königl. Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, W. Speemann, 1887, pp. 40-45: school of Donatello. 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. 46: school of Donatello. Bode 1894 Wilhelm Bode, Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas, Munich, F. Bruckmann, 1894, II, pl. 99: Donatello. Bode 1902 Wilhelm Bode, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, Bruno Cassirer, 1902, p. 114: after Donatello. Meyer 1903 Alfred Gotthold Meyer, Donatello, Bielefeld and Leipzig, Delhagen and Klafing, 1903, p. 117: Donatello. Schubring 1907 Paul Schubring, Donatello. Des Meisters Werke in 277 Abbildungen, Stuttgart and Leipzig, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1907, p. 87. Bode 1908 Wilhelm Bode, “Ein Blick in Donatellos Werkstatt”, Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft, I, n° 1-2, January-February 1908, p. 4: after Donatello. Venturi 1908 Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell’arte italiana. VI. La scultura del Quattrocento, Milan, Ulrico Hoepli, 1908, pp. 452, 456 fig. 299: school of Donatello, close to the Verona Madonna type. Other version in a private collection, Florence. Schottmüller 1913 Frida Schottmüller, Die italienischen und spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1913, p. 19 cat. 39: probably ca. 1450, close to the musician angels in Padua. Bode 1922 Wilhelm Bode, Die Italienische Plastik, 7th ed., Berlin and Leipzig, Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher Verleger and De Gruyter, 1922, p. 75 fig. 37: Donatello. Wulff 1922 Oskar Wulff, Donatello, Leipzig, E. A. Seemann, 1922, p. 19, fig. 56: 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, p. 7: Donatello. “Verzeichnis…” 1953 “Verzeichnis der im Flakturm Friedrichshain verlorengangenen Bildwerke der Skulpturen-Abteilung”, Berliner Museen, new series, III, n° 1-2, 1953, p. 11: burnt between 5 and 10 May 1945. 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, p. 101: the version in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna is “the strangest of all Donatellesque reliefs”. Rosenauer 1993 Artur Rosenauer, Donatello, Milan, Electa, 1993, p. 305. Jolly 1998 Anna Jolly, Madonnas by Donatello and his Circle, Frankfurt am Main et al., Peter Lang, 1998, p. 140-141: the Vienna version is said to be after Donatello, ca. 1460; the Berlin work is not mentioned. 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. 136: lost since 1945; last traced on 7 April 1945 in the Leitturm Friedrichshain, Berlin, crate 37 KFM. Sbaraglio 2012 Lorenzo Sbaraglio, “Una terracotta di Donatello: la Madonna della tomba di Giuliano Davanzati in Santa Trinita”, Nuovi Studi, XVII, n° 18, 2012, p. 72 note 76: compared with the Vienna version, no halo in the Berlin version (they may have been originally present but cut later on). Comment The Virgin is holding the Child with both arms (parallel to the relief, so that the left one cannot be seen, except from its upper part). Jesus is not only swaddled up to the neck, but also additionally wrapped in the Virgin’s veil. Both figures are seen from below, as is demonstrated by the perspective of the Antique style balustrade in the lower part – this probably indicates that the relief was originally in an elevated position. The work has almost invariably been attributed to the school of Donatello, and compared to a similar terracotta now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The latter is even more complex, in the sense that the figures are surrounded by angels in a niche (Sbaraglio 2012 wondered whether the halo of the Berlin work were in fact made, and cut out later; something that is impossible to verify as the relief has been lost). On the basis of the preserved photographs, the Donatellesque paternity of the Berlin relief (only accepted by Meyer 1903 and Wulff 1922) seems unlikely. The conception of the space is especially problematic for Donatello: the bust of the Virgin is unusually flat, while her right arm is too rigidly designed. In general, all the folds (in the Virgin’s veil and dress, in the Christ’s swaddling clothes) are somewhat schematic, and not dynamic enough to be by Donatello. There is little doubt, however, that the original composition of this Virgin and Child comes from Donatello. Pope-Hennessy 1976, ed. 1980 called the Vienna version “the strangest of all Donatellesque reliefs”: not only do we have here recurrent Donatellesque gestures of intimacy between the mother and her child, but also a drapery initially conceived to occupy almost all the relief (this effect can be compared to the Virgin and Child in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, Inv. RF 353). The spatial ambiguity of the Child – half standing, half held by his mother’s almost invisible left hand – is also typical of Donatello (two fingers of the Virgin’s hand slide under the drapery, an effect which recalls a Virgin and Child in marble from the Berlin Sculpture Collection, Inv. SKS 57). While the face of the Child is almost totally abraded, that of the Virgin is still very expressive: she is almost shouting, as if she was already deploring her dead son. Neville Rowley (18 February 2016)

Angaben zum Objekt

• Standort: Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
• Inventarnummer: 59
• Maße: Höhe x Breite: 37 x 29 cm
• Material/Technik: Pfeifenton

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Relief (Sachgruppe) ; SKS Verlust (Sachgruppe) ; Skulptur (Sachgruppe)
• Bezug (was): Madonna; d.h. Maria mit dem Christuskind

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Herstellung
• (wo): Florenz

Weitere Informationen

• Rechteinformation: Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 09.04.2025, 10:14 MESZ