AFTER DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO (1428-1464), FLORENTINE, LATE 15TH OR EARLY 16TH CENTURY

This relief is a simplified version of Desiderio da Settignano's Foulc Madonna from Santa Maria Nuova, Florence, and now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Two casts in painted stucco indicate the popularity of the composition, which has been attributed to Desiderio by Bode, Pope-Hennessy and Zuraw and more recently included in the monographic exhibition on the artist in Florence. The present relief conforms exactly with Desiderio's, save for the closed lips and the treatment of the hair, while the flanking cherubin in the sky are omitted, which is also the case in two stucco casts. Avery has suggested that the author of our relief may have worked for one of the Ferrucci dynasty of sculptors (C. Avery in Icons or Portraits, loc. cit.).