50 - Florentine School, ca. 1500. After a model by Desiderio da Settignano (Settignano, ca. 1429–Florence, 1464).

Florentine School, ca. 1500. After a model by Desiderio da Settignano (Settignano, ca. 1429–Florence, 1464). “Virgin and Child” (Madonna of Turin). Polychrome terracotta relief. It shows wear on the polychrome, craquelure, and losses in the paint layer. Measurements: 56.5 x 39 x 2 cm. This relief is directly related to one of the most highly regarded Marian models in 15th-century Florentine sculpture: the so-called Madonna of Turin, a composition traditionally attributed to Desiderio da Settignano, whose marble version is preserved in the Galleria Sabauda in Turin. The work offers an interesting insight into the dissemination of Renaissance sculptural models through versions executed in polychrome terracotta and stucco—materials that made it possible to translate the creations of the great masters into images intended for private devotion. Its significance lies particularly in its faithful rendering of a composition of great emotional sensitivity, in which the relationship between the Virgin and the Child takes on an intimacy rarely seen in religious representations of the medieval tradition. Desiderio da Settignano was one of the leading sculptors of fifteenth-century Florence and was particularly noted for his ability to transform relief into a medium of extraordinary expressive delicacy. Building on Donatello’s innovations, he developed a personal style characterized by the softness of his modeling, the elegance of his human figures, and the depiction of emotions through gestures of restrained naturalness. His Marian compositions played a decisive role in renewing the iconography of the Virgin and Child, gradually replacing the solemnity of earlier models with a more human vision of motherhood. His mastery is evident in works such as the Foulc Madonna, housed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is considered one of the great achievements of Renaissance sculptural relief. These compositions enjoyed extraordinary popularity. Florentine workshops reproduced the models of the most prestigious sculptors using molds that allowed for versions in materials more accessible than marble, often enriched with polychrome and gilding. Far from being mere decorative reproductions, these images were part of an important tradition of devotional sculpture, intended for domestic oratories, private chapels, and spaces for religious contemplation. The existence of numerous surviving versions demonstrates the popularity these models achieved among Florentine patrons in the late 15th century. Particularly significant is the comparison with a polychrome stucco Virgin and Child housed at the Art Institute of Chicago, inventory 1985.111, which reproduces the same composition as the Madonna of Turin. Some researchers have linked its polychromy to the circle of Neri di Bicci, a Florentine painter whose work is documented in the decoration of reliefs intended for private devotion. The relationship between the two works allows us to contextualize the piece presented here within an artistic tradition in which sculptors and painters collaborated to create images of great expressive and chromatic richness. The connection between Desiderio and the Florentine polychromy workshops is supported by documentary sources from the 15th century itself. Neri di Bicci’s *Ricordanze* record commissions for the decoration and gilding of Marian reliefs associated with Desiderio, some of which were intended for private individuals. These accounts are particularly important because they demonstrate that the production of polychrome versions of prestigious sculptural compositions was not a phenomenon limited to later periods, but rather a practice fully integrated into the Florentine art market of the Renaissance. The composition also finds parallels in other international museums, such as the Princeton University Art Museum, which houses a polychrome stucco relief of the Virgin and Child attributed to Desiderio da Settignano, and the National Gallery of Victoria, where another Italian version from the same tradition, dating from the 15th century, is preserved. The presence of these examples in institutional collections underscores the importance this type of work has acquired for the study of Renaissance domestic sculpture. The relief on display retains its polychromy, which—despite losses and wear—allows one to appreciate the image’s chromatic conception, with hallmarks between the flesh tones, the Virgin’s mantle, and the bluish background. The painted surface is an essential element for understanding the original function of this type of work, in which color helped to intensify the emotional closeness and devotional character of the representation. This Virgin and Child thus bears witness to the extraordinary spread of Desiderio da Settignano’s models and to the importance of polychrome terracotta in Florentine Renaissance sculpture.