Virgin and Child
Giovanni di Fondulis (Italian, active 1468–91)
c. 1485
- Medium
- Pigmented terracotta
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 146.7 × 50.8 × 28 cm (57 3/4 × 20 × 11 in.)
- Culture
- Central Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- 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
Although frequently described as a humble and austere medium, clay was perennially popular during the Italian Renaissance and could be modeled with notable sophistication. Clay was especially acceptable for finished works of art made in areas where marble or bronze was prohibitively expensive. Once completed, this sculpture was sliced with fine wire into at least four sections, and extremities like the Virgin’s head and hands and the Christ Child were fired separately. After firing, these elements were reassembled and painted. The Virgin and Child appears to be the work of an artist trained in Tuscany with some knowledge of the sculpture of Donatello and his partner Michelozzo.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
