Madonna and Child

Abstract

The central figures in this painted papier-mâché on wood relief were made using a mold taken from Benedetto da Maiano's marble relief, now in the Kress Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The composition was particularly popular -- dozens of versions (all of the same dimensions) survive in stucco and terracotta, each customized through painting. Such half-length reliefs of the Madonna and Child were used for domestic devotion. The original late mannerist frame suggests a date of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, which attests to the continuing popularity of this particular composition and of polychrome Madonna reliefs in general, despite the turn away from polychromy in mainstream sculpture. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.