Relief "Virgin with Child and angels". Italy, XV-XVI centuries.
Bronze in its color and gold, lapis lazuli, rock crystal, enamel.
In the center of the work, the figure of Mary is presented, enthroned, with a cloak on her shoulders and hair and holding the Child on her knees, who appears addressing one of the angels. The Virgin is also sheltered by an ogee arch supported on turned columns, and visually elevated by steps. This composition achieves a very striking contrast: the figure in dark bronze, in contrast to the lapis lazuli background and the part of the arch and the exterior of it, in gilt bronze. Under the steps appears an enamel heraldic shield with a key on an azure background. The angels, kneeling, are flanking this figure, and, appearing in dark bronze, they visually share the “category” of religious figures with Mary, while their (lower) position gives greater status to both the Mother and Jesus. The rest of the composition is completed with a delicate landscape: buildings and walls on mountains, clouds in the sky, plants, stones, etc. To the outside, there is another lapis lazuli frame decorated in the corners with appliques, giving way to the carved and polychrome wood.
Lapis lazuli is a semi-precious stone already known in the VII millennium BC. C., found in deposits from the Caucasus to Mauritania. From the end of the Middle Ages, its export to Europe increased, its use being more frequent since then both to use it as a pigment in pictures after grinding it (giving rise to the finest and most expensive of the blues, and of the colors on many occasions ), as well as for backgrounds of paintings, inlays in works of art, jewelry and, a little later, in the well-known “hard stone works”.
The figure of Mary still shows an influence of Gothic models, although more European than Italian, together with elements that could already show a closeness to the Renaissance: although the nakedness of Jesus is already shown in Gothic works (Madonna with Angels by Fra Angelico ), the creation of space by playing with the cloth in front of Christ can be seen in more advanced paintings (Virgin and Child by Domenico Ghirlandaio, National Gallery, London); the presence of a powerful throne can be seen frequently in Italian Madonnas of the Quattrocento (and before), but not quite as presented here. As for the landscape, it must be compared, for example, with that of the fresco by Condotiero Guidoriccio de Fogliano (Simone Martini, finished in 1328).
This is a work of great technical and aesthetic quality, not to mention the materials chosen for its creation, comparable only to outstanding examples from around the world, such as those preserved in the Madama Palace in Torino (Italy), in which the coral it also has an important role. It is essential to mention, too, works such as the hard stone plate (lapis lazuli among them) with a relief of Mary with the Child in bronze, made around 1580-1600 in Italy and preserved in the Art Institute of Chicago; or the “Panorama della Piazza della Signoria” (Jacopo Bilivert, ca. 1599) of the Pitti Museum; or the “Banquet of the Gods”, which follows a design by Guglielmo della Porta, preserved in the Metropolitan Museum in New York."
· Size: 20x22,5x3,5
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