Virgin and Child
Luca della Robbia
(Italian, Florence, 1399 or 1400–1482)
about 1448
Object PlaceFlorence, Italy
Medium/TechniqueGlazed terracotta
DimensionsOverall: 53 x 44.5 x 7 cm (20 7/8 x 17 1/2 x 2 3/4 in.)
Credit LineGift of Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr., and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton
Accession number17.1475
On View
On viewClassificationsSculpture
Collections
By presenting the Virgin in half-length, placing the figures in a niche, pressing them forward, and emphasizing their embrace, the sculptor made the figures seem closer to the viewer. Pure opaque white glaze, traces of gilding, and the colors of the niche add brilliance to the relief. Reliefs like this were made using molds; other, very similar versions of this composition exist.
ProvenanceBy 1894, Quincy Adams Shaw (b. 1825 - d. 1908), Boston [see note 1]; 1917, gift of Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr., and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 29, 1917)NOTES:
[1] See Allan Marquand, "The Madonnas of Luca della Robbia," American Journal of Archaeology 9, no. 1 (January-March, 1894), pp. 2, 14, no. II (20).
