the rectangular panel with an arched top depicts the Madonna, half-length as if seated at a parapet, the Child turning His head and holding her hand, below diminutive winged putti hold a medallion, all modelled in a delicate low relief,

This wonderful panel demonstrates virtuosic handling of sculptural work in low relief. Not much of the work Dominico Da Settignano has survived but what can be attributed to his hand is all extraordinary. This sculpture is catalogued in MacLagan and Longhurst “Catalogue of Italian Sculpture”, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1932, p43 (and pl.26 in accompanying volume) – Museum Number 7582-1861.

They note that “The relief itself may be compared with the chimney-piece in this Museum (5896-1859), especially the head of the woman and with the relief of the Virgin and Child in gray stone in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford”. LASSCO is lucky to have acquired the Brucciani mould of the former of these two sculptures mentioned and we offer casts from it in reproduction (click here). The entry continues “The peculiar treatment of the hair may be compared to that on the Turin Madonna and that formerly in the Foulc collection, now in the Museum at Philadelphia”.