Pazzi Madonna

The Pazzi Madonna
Artist Donatello
Year 1425 - 1430
Medium marble relief sculpture
Dimensions 74,50 cm × 69,50 cm (2,930 in × 2,740 in)
Location Bode-Museum, Berlin
Studio copy, Louvre

The Pazzi Madonna is a rectangular "stiacciato" marble relief sculpture by Donatello, now in the sculpture collections of the Bode-Museum in Berlin[1][2]. Dating to around 1425-1430, it was probably originally produced for private devotion in the Palazzo Pazzi della Congiura in Florence at the beginning of Donatello's collaboration with Michelozzo[3]. It was extremely popular and is known in several copies.

The Virgin Mary is shown three-quarter-length, holding the Christ Child in her arms. Neither of them are shown with haloes and the emphasis is instead on their tender and intense intimacy, developing themes from the Eleusa-type icon in Byzantine art. The child reaches out his arm to his mother, but both their expressions are melancholy, with the Virgin reflecting on her son's future Passion.

References

  1. ↑ Catalogue entry by Neville Rowley
  2. ↑ (in Italian) AA.VV., La collezione di sculture al Bode-Museum, Prestel, Monaco di Baviera, 2011. ISBN 978-3-7913-4260-3
  3. ↑ (in German) Rolf C. Wirtz, Donatello, Könemann, Colonia 1998. ISBN 3-8290-4546-8
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