ITALIAN, PROBABLY FLORENCE, FIRST HALF 16TH CENTURY | VIRGIN AND CHILD ENTHRONED

This intriguing and charming group of the Virgin and Child is known in only two versions. It is a tender representation of the Child reaching up to His mother and holding the neckline of her dress, as if to steady Himself on Her knee. The composition is the same as a plain bronze example in the Victoria & Albert Museum (A.78-1910, fig. 1). There are a number of differences between the two casts, apart from the obvious difference in the gilding of the present bronze. The hair on both figures of the present bronze is more naturalistically rendered in distinct wavy curls with more after work than in the V&A version. The present bronze is overall more highly finished, notably in the lower parts of the drapery, which are left almost unfinished in the museum bronze. However, the most significant difference is the separately cast open-sided shallow gilt bronze base on the present example. It is likely that the openings in the base would have contained rock crystal or coloured glass and the bottom closed to form a reliquary. This form of the base is highly unusual and indicates that the bronze was used for a special function, which is now unclear.

The V&A bronze is described as Florentine first half of the 16^th century. The heavy drapery across the Virgin’s legs and elegant sweep to Her left arm echo the work of Jacopo Sansovino, but the style of the group reflects a general dependence on Michelangelo’s Bruges and Medici Madonnas.