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Virgin and Child
Desiderio da Settignano (Italian, 1428-1464)
c. 1450
- Medium
- Painted stucco
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 61 × 43.2 cm (24 × 17 in.); 70.5 × 53.5 cm (27 13/16 × 21 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Gordon Palmer
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Desiderio da Settignano was the most gifted Florentine sculptor of his day. He excelled at creating marble reliefs of the Virgin and Child, in which forms overlap within an extremely shallow space while conveying a profound awareness of the bond between mother and child. This painted stucco, of which at least a dozen versions are known, was cast from a marble known as the Turin Madonna (Turin, Galleria Sabauda), one of Desiderio’s most admired works. The quality of the painting and punching suggest that this stucco was finished in the workshop of Neri di Bicci, a 15th-century Florentine painter who frequently collaborated with other artists.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
