Madonna and Child with Angels

Abstract

This glazed terracotta lunette sits above the entrance to the Badia on the Via del Proconsulo in Florence. Here Andrea has adapted the half-length intimate reliefs of the Madonna and Child that he and his uncle made for domestic devotion to the larger scale, lunette format, and outdoor location by adding the adoring angels on either side and modelling the figures' heads in high releief, so that they seem to project in front of the framing arch. colourful naturalistic fruit garlands contrast with the more abstracted white figures, set against a blue ground. This relief is strategically placed at the end of the long straight Via Ghibellina and so can be seen a great distance. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.