Master of the Marble Madonnas
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Tuscan
-Linguistic phenomena:* Tuscan dialect, the ancestor of the modern Italian language* Tuscan gorgia, a sound-Creative works:* Under the Tuscan Sun * Under the Tuscan Sun -Sports cars:...
region of Italy between c. 1470 and c.1500. He is thought to have been responsible for a group of stylistically related sculptures that is based mainly on their related compositions and drapery
Drapery
Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles . It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothing, formerly conducted by drapers.In art history, drapery refers to any cloth or...
forms. Products of the Master's workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
include a large number of relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
s of the Virgin and Child; busts and reliefs depicting the suffering of Christ were also popular, as were busts of children. Various mannerisms can be seen in this group, as well; among these has been what is described as "a peculiar feline smile from heavy-lidded eyes and a taut jaw, at its best radiating inward joy but often acerbic or bordering on the manic"
The name "Master of the Marble Madonnas" was coined by Wilhelm von Bode
Wilhelm von Bode
Wilhelm von Bode was a German art historian and curator. Born Arnold William Bode in Calvörde, he was ennobled in 1913...
in 1886, who noted several points of similarity linking these sculptures to the production of well-known Florentine masters such as Mino da Fiesole
Mino da Fiesole
Mino da Fiesole , also known as Mino di Giovanni, was an Italian sculptor from Poppi, Tuscany. He is noted for his portrait busts.-Career:...
, Antonio Rossellino
Antonio Rossellino
Antonio Gamberelli , nicknamed Antonio Rossellino for the colour of his hair, was an Italian sculptor. His older brother, from whom he received his formal training, was the painter Bernardo Rossellino....
, Desiderio da Settignano
Desiderio da Settignano
Desiderio da Settignano, real name Desiderio de Bartolomeo di Francesco detto Ferro was an Italian sculptor active during the Renaissance.-Biography:...
, and Benedetto da Maiano
Benedetto da Maiano
Benedetto da Maiano was an Italian sculptor of the early Renaissance.Born in the village of Maiano , he started his career as companion of his brother, the architect Giuliano da Maiano. When he reached the age of thirty he started training under the sculptor Antonio Rossellino...
but which are generally inferior in quality and execution. Under whom this "Master of the Marble Madonnas" might have received his training is unknown but it surely would have been in the workshop of one of these masters. Previous attempts to identify van Bode's Master of the Marble Madonnas with either Giovanni Ricci, Domenico Rosselli
Domenico Rosselli
Domenico Rosselli was an Italian sculptor.Details of Rosselli's life are limited, but he seems to have trained in Florence. He is best known for his work on many of the friezes, sculpted doorways and decorative fireplaces in the Ducal Palace in Urbino, most particularly the in the...
, or Tommaso Fiamberti did not gain wide acceptance. Fiamberti's name did receive the most critical support.
In 2001, Alfredo Bellandi presented evidence connecting the Master of the Marble Madonnas and the sculptures associated with that name to a rather obscure Florentine sculptor named Gregorio di Lorenzo. Gregorio was trained in the workshop of Desiderio da Settignano, absorbing through him characteristics common to the Rossellino brothers. As an independent master, Gregorio di Lorenzo is documented in Florence from 1455 to 1495.
Gregorio di Lorenzo is known also to have worked in the ducal courts of Urbino
Urbino
Urbino is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino from 1444 to 1482...
and Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
, also making trips to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
to serve Mattia Corvino and to Italian outposts along the eastern Adriatic. His significance to the Italian Renaissance lies not so much in any particular work but in the overall contribution he rendered in spreading the Florentine approach to sculpture to a wider audience.
Works by the Master can be found in various museum collections, including those of the Pinacoteca Civica
Pinacoteca Civica di Forlì
The Pinacoteca Civica of Forlì, one of the civic museums of Forlì and currently based in the Musei di San Domenico, is an Italian art gallery. Artists whose work the gallery exhibits include:* Livio Agresti* Beato Angelico...
, in Forlì
Forlì
Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, and is the capital of the province of Forlì-Cesena. The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the right of the Montone river, and is an important agricultural centre...
(Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
); Columbia Museum of Art
Columbia Museum of Art
The Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina has a collection of European and American fine and decorative art that spans several centuries...
in Columbia, SC;National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
; National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
;; the National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
; and the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
. The Washington collection also contains a nineteenth-century work copying his style.