Madonna von Verona / Virgin and Child (called the Verona Madonna)

Relief

After Donatello Virgin and Child (called the Verona Madonna) ca. 1450 Papier-mâché 83 x 56 cm In the pediment of the frame, a representation of God the Father, in a style close to Paolo Uccello or Andrea di Giusto. Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS M 24. Formerly Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, lost since May 1945. Provenance Florence (1900); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Altes Museum (1900-1904); Berlin, Skulpturensammlung/Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (1904-1939); Berlin, storage (1939-1945); whereabouts unknown (1945-present). Acquisition Bought in Florence in 1900, anonymous gift. Other Versions • Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Skulpturensammlung, Inv. SKS M 254. Bode-Museum, storage. Terracotta, 73.8 x 53 cm. • Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Inv. Sc. 363. Terracotta, 76 x 53 cm. • Krefeld, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum, Inv. 202/1901. Painted stucco, 95 x 65 cm. • London, Victoria and Albert Museum, Inv. A1-1932. Stucco, h: 95.3 cm. • Lugano, Rohoncz Castle. • New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inv. 12.78. Painted terracotta, 73.7 x 52.1 cm. • Paris, Musée du Louvre, Inv. RF 589. Papier-mâché, 95 x 57 cm. • Verona, via delle Fogge, façade. Stucco. • Formerly Berlin, Königliche Museen. Sold in 1900. • Formerly Vienna, Castiglioni collection. Comment This type of Virgin and Child is known as the Verona Madonna, after a composition in stucco that is still visible today in a street tabernacle on the Via delle Fogge in Verona. The composition is known in various versions (see Radcliffe 1992) and has almost always been connected to Donatello: the close but sad relationship between the mother and her Child; the plasticity of the two arms of Mary, subtly foreshortened; her hairdo; the position of the Child, held tightly and free at the same time, and twisting in several directions – all this has its origin in the art of Donatello. In the master’s oeuvre, the Verona Madonna can be directly compared with the Louvre Madonna (Inv. RF 353) and the Madonna with Cherubs in the Bode-Museum (Inv. SKS 54), which points towards a creation in the 1440s. A painting once attributed to Andrea Mantegna formerly in the Goodbody Collection in Invergarry and in the T. E. Nelson collection in Manchester seems a direct echo of this composition (see Ronald Lightbown, Mantegna, Oxford, Phaidon and Christie’s, 1986, p. 480 cat. 173, pl. 203); it is a good indication that the original work may have been created during Donatello’s stay in Padua (1443-1454). The Virgin and Child in a similar pose in a trompe-l’oeil lunette in one of the reliefs of the Santo Altarpiece by Donatello (the Miracle of the Speaking Infant) gives weight to this hypothesis. The Berlin Museums have had a difficult history with images of the Verona Madonna type. A first version of the work (in which the figures had haloes) was bought in Venice in 1884 (Bode and Tschudi 1888), but sold in 1900 when the present relief was acquired thanks to the recently created Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein. The deaccession of the first relief may reflect doubts about its authenticity, as no other piece in the Donatellesque collection in Berlin had such a fate (the works sold during the Nazi-era represent a special case; see Inv. SKS 2930). The present relief was lost in the Friedrichshain fires in May 1945 – a loss that is all the more regrettable as this version in papier-mâché was said to be the closest one to the original by Donatello (see Gentilini 1985; Payre 1989). In 1967, the Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein bought for the West Berlin collection another version of the relief (Inv SKS 254). In 1986, thermoluminescence indicated that this later acquisition was fired during the 19th or the 20th century (archives of the Bode-Museum); the possibility of a forgery may be confirmed by the somewhat too geometrical aspect of the reverse (Bodo Buczinsky, oral communication, August 2015). Literature Bode 1900 Wilhelm Bode, “Erwerbungen im Jahre 1899/1900”, Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein zu Berlin. Bericht für das Geschäftsjahr 1899-1900, Berlin, Büxenstein, 1900, p. 12: Donatello, Paduan period. Marquand 1913 Allan Marquand, “Some Works by Donatello in America”, Art in America, I, n°4, October 1913, p. 221: said to come from Venice (confusion with the former version in the Berlin Museums, Inv. SKS 62). 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. 18-19 cat. 37: the original by Donatello does not exist anymore; other versions notably in the Via delle Fogge, Verona; in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; in the Beckerath collection, Berlin. Bode 1922 Wilhelm von Bode, Die Italienische Plastik, 7th ed., Berlin and Leipzig, Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher Verleger and De Gruyter, 1922, p. 78 fig. 39: 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. 11: workshop of Donatello, ca. 1445; existed as an unpainted version in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum that was sold after this acquisition; p. 12: same master as Inv. SKS 2634. Feulner 1941 Adolf Feulner (ed.), Stiftung Sammlung Rohoncz. III. Teil. Plastik und Kunsthandwerk, Lugano, n. ed., 1941, p. 14. Goldscheider 1941 L. Goldscheider, Donatello, Paris, Phaidon, 1947, p. 39 fig. 114: after Donatello. “Verzeichnis…” 1953 “Verzeichnis der im Flakturm Friedrichshain verlorengangenen Bildwerke der Skulpturen-Abteilung”, Berliner Museen, new series, III, n°1-2, 1953, p. 12: burnt between 5 and 10 May 1945. 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. 85: after Donatello. Berliner Museen 1968 Berliner Museen, new series, XVIII, n°1, 1968, pp. 36, 38: about the new acquisition in 1967 of Inv. SKS M 254, replacing the Inv. SKS M 24, lost in 1945. Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein Berlin… 1972 Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein Berlin. Erwerbungen 1897-1972, n. pl., Adolph Fürst & Sohn, 1972, p. 34 cat. 24: Donatello. McNeal Caplow 1977 Harriet McNeal Caplow, Michelozzo, New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1977, I, pp. 483-485; II, fig. 186: after a prototype by Michelozzo and not by Donatello. Gentilini 1985 Giancarlo Gentilini in Paola Barocchi et al. (eds.), Omaggio a Donatello. 1386-1986. Donatello e la storia del Museo, exh. cat. (Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 19 December 1985-30 May 1986), Florence, SPES, 1985, pp. 432-434: with the Krefeld version, the closest version to the lost original by Donatello. Neri Lusanna 1986 Enrica Neri Lusanna, “Stefano Bardini e la collezione di sculture”, in eadem and Lucia Faedo (eds.), Il museo Bardini a Firenze. Volume secondo: le sculture, Milan, Electa, 1986, p. 24 and 31: Bardini provenance. Krahn and Lessmann 1987 Volker Krahn and Johanna Lessmann, Italienische Renaissancekunst im Kaiser Wilhelm Museum Krefeld, Krefeld, Krefeld Kunstmuseen, 1987, p. 26. Payre 1989 Marie-Noëlle Payre, La Madone de Vérone, MA Thesis (IFROA, Sculpture Section, 2nd part), 1989: this version and the one in the Musée du Louvre, Paris are the most ancient ones. Radcliffe 1992 Anthony Radcliffe in idem, Malcom Baker and Michael Maek-Gérard, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Renaissance and Later Sculpture with Works of Art in Bronze, London, Sotheby’s Publications, 1992, pp. 48-53. Elsig 1997 Frédéric Elsig in Mauro Natale and Claude Ritschard (eds.), L’art d’imiter. Images de la Renaissance italienne au Musée d’art et d’histoire, exh. cat. (Geneva, Musée d’art et d’histoire, 14 March-28 September 1997), Geneva, Musée d’art et d’histoire, 1997, p. 127: Paduan workshop of Donatello; does not mention Inv. KFM 254. Keller 1997 Peter Keller, “Katalog der Bildwerke (Skulptur) und des Kunstgewerbes des Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Vereins”, in 100 Jahre Mäzenatentum. Die Kunstwerke des Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Vereins Berlin, Berlin, Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein, 1997, p. 228: workshop of Donatello. Jolly 1998 Anna Jolly, Madonnas by Donatello and his Circle, Frankfurt am Main et al., Peter Lang, 1998, p. 122 cat. 28. 1: after Donatello, later 1440s. 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. 137: last documented in the vault of the Neue Reichsmünze, Berlin on 7 April 1945, crate n°750 KFM. Vaccari 2006 Maria Grazia Vaccari in Vittorio Sgarbi (ed.), La scultura al tempo di Andrea Mantegna tra classicismo e naturalismo, exh. cat. (Mantua, Castello di San Giorgio, 16 September 2006-14 January 2007), Milan, Electa, 2006, p. 62: related to the version in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (Inv. 363), exhibited as by Donatello. Bormand 2008 Marc Bormand, Donatello. La Vierge et l’Enfant. Deux reliefs en terre cuite, Paris, Musée du Louvre et Somogy, 2008, p. 19: related to the version in the Musée du Louvre, also in papier-mâché. Gentilini 2008 Giancarlo Gentilini, “La cartapesta nel Rinascimento toscano”, in Raffaele Casciaro (ed.), La scultura in cartapesta. Sansovino, Bernini e i Maestri leccesi tra tecnica e artificio, exh. cat. (Milan, Museo diocesano, 15 January-30 March 2008; Lecce, Museo provinciale “Sigismondo Castromediano”, 18 April-15 June 2008), Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana, 2008, p. 32: related to the version in the Musée du Louvre, also in papier-mâché. Neville Rowley (24 May 2016)

Object Details

• Location: Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
• Inventory number: M 24
• Measurements: Höhe x Breite: 83 x 56 cm
• Material/Technique: Cartapesta;

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Relief (Sachgruppe) ; SKS Verlust (Sachgruppe) ; Skulptur (Sachgruppe)
• Subject (what): Madonna; d.h. Maria mit dem Christuskind

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Herstellung
• (where): Florenz

Further information

• Rights: Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
• Last update: 09.04.2025, 10:14 AM CEST