“Madonna and Child,” about 1465-1525. Glazed terracotta. The dimensions of the image are: 29 x 20 1/8 x 4 ½ in. (73.7 x 51.2 x 11. 4 cm.). The total dimensions, including the frame are: 57 ¾ x 35 ¾ x 6 ¾ in. (146.7 x 90.8 x 17.1 cm).TMA# 1938.123.
“Madonna and Child” has
been in the permanent collection of the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) for 82 years
(TMA# 1938.123). della Robbia Family’s “Madonna and Child” is a 555-year-old (about
1465-1470) artwork that was done with clay gathered from the banks of the Arno
River, that runs through the city of Florence, Italy. Luca della Robbia
(1399-1482), one of the artists, developed a special recipe (tin oxide, and lead)
for the glaze, that covers the high-relief clay (terracotta) sculpture that was
shaped with his hands. Luca della Robbia was an accomplished marble and bronze
sculptor, who was trained as a goldsmith in his youth, until his artistic
talent was discovered by the Medici family who commissioned him to do artworks
for the Duomo or Cathedral of Florence, under the direction of Filippo Brunelleschi
(1377-1446) in 1420-1436.
“Madonna and Child,” a high-relief
sculpture, is in Gallery 19, which entrance, now, is connected to Gallery 35
through a narrow door. The artwork, as one enters the room, is hanging in the
right-hand side wall. It is an artwork standing alone in part of a wall that is
divided by a closed door. The artwork draws one’s attention by the simplicity of
the figures composition, that occupy most of the space, a young woman holding a
standing naked male child, by the contrasting colors of the glazes, white (the
figures) in the foreground, light ultramarine blue in the background (negative
space), and by the symmetrical ornate wood frame painted in gold with some details
and the background painted in dark blue. The rectangular shape frame looks like
a classical building’s open window, through which one sees the white glazed figures
of a young woman and a standing naked male child. When one gets closer to the
artwork, one realizes that the child is standing in what it seems to be a
cloud, a textured (wavy) horizontal oval shape, that also encloses the lower
body of the young woman. The cloud shape is painted in light blue over the white
glazed surface.
The human proportions of
the sculpture figures are not life size. The dimensions of the sculpture are
73.7 x 51.2 x 11.4 centimeters. The texture present in the glazed object stimulates
our tactile sense by our understanding of what we are seeing: the folds of the woman’s
fabric (sharp lines), the border of her veil (rough), the boy’s curly hair (wavy),
and the skin of the arm and neck (smooth). The young woman’s body is shown up
to her hips. She seems to be standing according to her body posture. She is
dressed in a robe fastened by a fabric belt/cord under her breasts. She is also
covered by a cloak, which folds and pleads are well delineated by diagonal,
horizontal and vertical lines. The cloak’s fabric covers part of her flexed right
forearm. Her left arm is not seen due to the presence of the child’s body that
occupies that space. He is standing close to her body. Her head is covered by a
veil and her facial features are delicate and young. Her left ear is partially
seen, as well as some hair in the forehead. Her head is flexed towards the left
and down, head position that hides somewhat the left eye, and the nose is partially
seen in profile. The pupils (dark colored glaze) and iris (blue colored glaze) are
directed towards the left and the eyelids are slightly down. She is looking at
the child. Her lips are closed. Over and behind her head there is a white semicircular
shape (halo). Her right hand is holding the child’s right-side thorax and
abdomen. By the pressure of her hand over the child’s abdomen, a fold is formed
below her hand. Her left hand is partially seen (only four fingers) grasping
the child’s left hip, again, by her hand pressure a skin impression in the
boy’s hip is noticeable. Her body is slightly turned/twisted (body movement) to
the left where the child is standing.
She is in the act of
holding the child. The boy’s legs seem strong enough to stand but his attitude
looks like he is afraid/hesitant to lose his balance. We can see his right hand
holding tightly to the young woman’s cloak. His body posture is in
contrapposto, seen in classical Greek/Roman sculptures, his left leg is
straight/extended, the right knee is slightly flexed, and the left hip is
higher than the right that shows the artist’s knowledge of human anatomy. His right
foot is a little bit forward compared to the left foot. It seems that there are
convexity and concavity shapes (texture) in the cloud-like shape, where the
child is standing, that gives a sense of movement in his feet, reason why the
right foot (in the convexity) is seen from the medial aspect and the left foot
(standing in a concavity) is more firmly planted and seen in a more frontal
view. The boy’s legs, feet, hands, and face show that baby fat (more rounded organic
shapes instead of delineating the muscle masses) is still present in his toddler
years.
The boy’s face is
appropriate to his age, he looks like he might be one or two years old, a
toddler. His head bends towards the left, but one can appreciate his face
frontally. One can see both of his eyes, which pupils (dark colored glaze) and
iris (blue colored glaze) are directed towards the left side. The eyebrows are
fine lines painted in blue glaze. His lips are closed. His facial expression tells
us that he is alert and aware of his surroundings. His hair is long enough to
see waves and curls that stimulate our visual understanding of texture and
movement. We can see both of his ear lobes. Behind and above his head there is
a white circle (halo) shape that is mostly hidden by the child’s head. He is
holding a sphere in his left hand. The sphere’s size is large enough to be
grasped in a child’s (toddler’s age) hand, as he is handling it. The proportion
of the child’s body size, in the sculpture, is similar in proportion when
comparing him to a normal child’s size for his age (a three-year-old child is
about one half the height of the adult). When we compare the sculpture’s
child’s body size to the young woman’s body size, who has a small body frame,
we can conclude that there is a realistic body proportionality between the
figures. The figures seem to be in the same frontal plane, but due to the
larger size of the woman’s body, the boy is standing slightly forward, as being
pushed forward by the woman’s left arm and hand. With this positioning of the
child’s body, the woman might be in the act of presenting the child to the
viewer.
Her hands surrounding the
child’s body can embrace him tightly if she needs to do so. She is in alert of
a possible eventuality of him losing his balance. She is protecting him. She is
taking care of him. There is a strong connection between them. She does not
smile. She is serious. She seems worried and even sad. She is engaged in her
role of a mother taking care of her child.
The three dimensionality
of the white glazed high-relief sculpture makes the viewer appreciate the
naturalistic human anatomy details that the human figures depict according to
their sex and age. Also, the position of the viewer in relation to the artwork helps
to appreciate different planes/angles and other details of the human figures by
noticing shadows and light in the sculpture surfaces according to where the
light of the room hits the artwork.
The wood frame’s composition
is reminiscent of classical Roman temple architectural structures with
rectangular columns (pilasters), on each lateral side of the frame, with
Corinthian capital decorations and shaft with vertical lines (flutes) painted
by intercalated colors of gold and blue. The top of the frame is a rounded arch
(resembling a pediment) space, which background is painted blue with golden
stars drawn on the lower lateral sides of the arch space. Also, a white dove,
with fully opened wings, is painted in the center of the space, that coincides
with a vertical plane/line trajectory that includes the head and body of the
Madonna (giving us the understanding that the Madonna’s figure is also the
center of the composition). The dove’s figure shows the artist’s understanding
of perspective by his/her drawing of the dove’s head and wings larger in the
foreground when compared to the rest of the dove’s body The white dove is
surrounded by golden lines in different directions: diagonal, vertical and
horizontal, resembling sun rays, lines that complete the shape of a circle. In
the uppermost part, at the edge, in the center of the round arch (convex side),
there is a golden form that resembles nine or ten petals (narrow oblong shapes)
of a flower, acanthus leaves or part of a golden crown, by which location we
can conclude that it is in the same central vertical plane/line trajectory described
above.
Below the round arch, described
above, a rectangular shaped space (resembling a frieze), which background is
painted in blue, we see three children’s faces (putti or angels) drawn in gold
contour lines that are symmetrically placed: one in the center and the others
at the right and left borders of the rectangular space. Each angel’s face,
hairstyle and pupil’s or eye direction are different. At each side and below
the angel faces, wings are drawn in gold contour lines. In between the angel’s
faces, two wide garlands where drawings of pinecones, pine branches, flowers, leaves,
and fruits fill the garlands’ forms. Above the wide garlands are narrow curved opened
banners/scrolls that look like floating or moving. It seems that there are
letters written in the banners/scrolls but are illegible. The frame’s
dimensions are 73 x 39.6 x 5.7 centimeters.
At the base of the frame
(predella) a Latin phrase reads (in all capital letters): “REGINA COELI LAETARE
ALLE/A” that translated reads: “QUEEN OF HEAVEN, REJOICE, ALLELUIA,” the phrase
is bracketed with a five leaves golden flower form.
With all the information
above described we can apply an explanation towards the importance of the
composition’s vertical plane/line trajectory above described. The vertical plane/line
trajectory and other art related elements are the artists’ ways to guide our
viewer’s eyes though the frame and sculpture composition to understand not only
the art object but the iconographic meanings or religious symbolisms. By
directing our eyes from the uppermost central gold crown/acanthus (royalty),
down to the central white dove (Holy Spirit), then to the central angel’s face (celestial,
the good news, protection), then to the woman’s head halo (Mary, mother of
Jesus Christ), then to her eyes, which pupils look to the left, then to the
boy’s halo and face (Jesus Christ), then to his left hand holding a sphere
(apple, relating to the story of Adam and Eve/Old Testament: Genesis) and then
below the Latin phrase. We can conclude that the artwork is a religious object
that stresses the importance of Mary as the Mother of Jesus, a devotional
figure that Christianity, especially Catholics, were preconizing in Renaissance
times.
Again, repeating the
above mentioned Christian religion symbolisms: the title of the artwork “Madonna
and Child,” the presence of halos in the figures, the sphere in the left hand
of the child (apple), the blue glaze in the background and the cloud representing
heaven (spiritual figures as floating/moving in space/ethereal
figures/invisible made visible), the images in the frame (dove: Holy Spirit, angels,
the Latin phrase) determines that the human figures are Mary and Jesus, mother
and child, whose stories are told in the Bible’s New Testament. Also, considering
that the color white in Renaissance times was related with purity, joy, and
peace, feelings that are related with the image of the “Madonna and Child.” At
the time that this artwork was done, usually it was commissioned by a patron,
who decided how he/she wanted the artwork to look like, the materials to use,
who the human figures must resembled to and where it should be located or
donated. By reading some articles regarding the artist Lucca della Robbia, we
learned that he was never married or had children of his own, but he adopted
two nephews, sons of his only brother, one of his nephews, Andrea, continued
with Lucca’s artwork tradition using the glaze recipe that was a family secret
for two hundred years. Lucca was very fond of children. He was an expert sculpting
the figures of children in marble, ceramic, and bronze.
Many questions could not be
answered in this paper. Who was the patron who commissioned the artwork? Are
the young woman and child portraits of the patron’s or artists’ family members?
Was this artwork a personal devotional object or was in a building or church? Who
owned it? Where was the artwork located before being part of TMA’s permanent
collection? How the artwork looked like or what personal emotions/feelings were
produced under the light of a candle or torch at night, considering what the original
light source in the Renaissance times was in Florence at night
(candles/torches)? Is the artwork made in pieces, as other della Robbia’s artworks
are? Was the wood frame done for the sculpture? Was the wood frame done at the
same time as the sculpture? Who made the wood frame? Who commissioned the wood frame?
A YouTube video lecture
“Creative Ingenuity in Florentine Renaissance Sculpture” by Marietta Cambareri
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA on December 30, 2016, is a useful resource
regarding della Robbia’s family artworks. The link to watch the video is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=171&v=ds5OZZZyMMU&feature=emb_logo
The video explains the
chemical elements of the clay analysis of the Arno River in Florence, Italy. “The
clay is high in calcium (Ca 20.1) (Marle or calcareous clay) with high Silica
(Si 56.4) and aluminum (Al 13.5) and other elements that make a good interaction
with the elements of the della Robbia’s glaze (high level of tin and high level
of lead) that provide the opacity or purity of the color (you cannot see
through the clay) and the brilliant shine. The high level of tin also
contributes to the brilliance of the whites.”
The simplicity of the use
of the color white to depict the figures in “Madonna and Child,” helps us to
focus on the main reason why the object was created, as a way to deepen our
personal religious devotion. By the observation and meditation of religious
symbolisms, the viewer remembers Mary’s and Jesus’ life story. In the
sculpture, we see him as a standing naked toddler showing us his humanity. We
see his left hand not in the sign of blessing, as he often is portrayed, but
holding tightly to his mother’s veil as he is losing his equilibrium, afraid to
fall, another sign of his human condition. His left hand is holding a sphere, an
apple, relating us to the Adam’s and Eve’s story told in the Bible. The figures
are tri-dimensional, they seem as they are going to move, to come out of the
place where they are standing to reach us, to talk to us. The white dove with
opened wings is ready to fly towards us.
Without the halos, the
holy mother and holy child could be just any human family’s mother and child
representation, and this fact is what makes this artwork simple and beautiful.
The warm care of a mother’s embrace towards her baby. A human life’s story: the
relationship of a mother and her child. The artwork stimulates and engages us
to a conversation!
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