Luca della Robbia

Relief of the Madonna and child, c1450

Auction Closed

January 28, 04:44 PM GMT

Estimate

700,000 - 1,000,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Luca della Robbia

Florence 1399/1400 - 1482 Florence

Italian, Florence, circa 1440-1450

Virgin and Child, known as the "Friedrichstein Madonna" type

tin-glazed terracotta

white figures on a blue ground, integral splayed box frame, glazed in white with turquoise strips and blue disks in imitation of precious marble inlay

18 1/2 by 15 3/4 in.; 47.2 by 40cm.

47.2 x 38.9 x 10.1cm (maximum depth); depth of the frame 6.3 cm; the image and related internal strip 37.7 x 28.8 x 6.2 cm (depth of relief)

Santa Fiora (Grosseto), the Capuchin church or convent;
confiscated by the Comune di Santa Fiora following the suppression of religious orders,1866;
sold by Santa Fiora’s municipal authorities to Léon Mathieu Henri de Somzée, c. 1867;
Brussels, de Somzée collection (documented from 1880 to 1904);
Brussels, sold by de Somzée’s widow to Rudolph Bottenwieser, before 1913;
Berlin-New York, Paul Bottenwieser Gallery until 1927-29;
Buffalo, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, lent on approval by Paul Bottenwieser, 1927-29;
Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery (from 1962 Albright-Knox Art Gallery), bought from Paul Bottenwieser with support from the Seymour H. Knox Foundation, 3 May 1929

C. de Roddaz, ed., “Art Italien. Salon L. Somzée,” in L’Art Ancien a l’Exposition Nationale Belge [1880], Brussels – Paris, 1882, pp. 385-391, pp. 388-390, fig. 5 p. 388 (engraving after a drawing by Gustave Fraipont);

(J. Fievez, expert/auctioneer) Catalogue des Monuments d’Art Antique (…)composant les Collections de Somzée. Trosième partie. Objets d’Art Anciens (…), sale catalogue (Brussels, 22 Rue de Palais, 24 May - 11 June 1904), Brussels 1904, p. 58 lot 1142, fig. p. 49 (4 June);

F. Schottmüller, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke der Christlichen Epochen. V. Die Italienischen und Spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks in Marmor, Ton, Holz und Stuck, Berlin 1913, p. 32;

A. Marquand, Luca della Robbia, Princeton, New Jersey, 1914, pp. 161, 243, no. 94;

International Studio, October, 1929, p. 60 (illus.);

AD, 15 December 1929, IV, p. 8 (illus.);

F. Schottmüller, “Eine Madonna des Luca della Robbia,” in Academy notes. Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, XXI, 1930, 2, pp. 3-7;

F. Schottmüller, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Bildwerke des Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums. 2. Die Italienischen und Spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks. 1. Die Bildwerke in Stein, Holz und Wachs, Berlin 1933, p. 24;

W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Italian Gothic and Early Renaissance Sculpture, exhibition catalogue, Detroit Institute of Arts, 7 January - 20 February 1938), Detroit 1938, no. 34 (pp. and pl. n.p);

C. L. Ragghianti, “La mostra di scultura italiana antica a Detroit (U.S.A.),” in Critica d’Arte, III, 1938, pp. 170-183, p. 175;

L. Planiscig, Luca Della Robbia, Vienna, 1940, p. 35, no. 78;

A. C. Ritchie, Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture in the Permanent Collection, I, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1949, pp. 164-65 (illus.), 203, no. 79;

M. Downer, Long ago in Florence. The Story of the della Robbia Sculpture, New York, 1968 (p. and pl. n.p);

C. Avery, “Three Marble Reliefs by Luca della Robbia,” Museum Studies, VIII, 1976, p. 6-37, p.12, fig. 7, p. 13;

S. A. Nash, Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Painting and Sculpture from Antiquity to 1942, Buffalo - New York 1979, pp. 148-149 (entry and pl. n.p);

J. Pope-Hennessy, Luca della Robbia, Oxford 1980, pp. 35, 62, 66, 250-251 no. 28, pl. XXV;

C. Avery, “Three Marble Reliefs by Luca della Robbia” [1976], in idem, Studies in European Sculpture, London 1981, pp. 1-24, p. 5, fig. 7 p. 6;

G. Gentilini, “Della Robbia, Luca,” entry in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, XXXVII, Roma 1989, pp. 279-291, p. 284;

G. Gentilini, I Della Robbia. La Scultura invetriata nel Rinascimento, 2 vols., Florence 1992, I, pp. 47, 102-103, fig. p. 60.