Madonna and Child BENEDETTO DA MAIANO c. 1494

Benedetto da Maiano, like Antonio Rossellino, was one of the greatest masters of marble carving, producing portrait busts and tomb decorations as well as independent Madonna reliefs. The above Madonna, although mottled and quite similar to that used by Rossellino is actually very different.

"In Benedetto's relief, the bonds of intimacy between mother and child are strengthened by the curvilinear arrangement of cloth and limbs; but in general, it is fair to say that Benedetto replaces concern for surface decoration with a more sweeping interest in volume-----the bodily forms seem large by comparison. They originally stood out all the more by being stationed in front of a patterned background, whose traces are most visible near the child's head. The humanity and the voluminous effects in the art of Benedetto make him an anticipatory figure of vital importance for the development of the High Renaissance."
------------Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


We left the relief as is, preferring not to "clean up" the discoloration of age, as it looks just fine this way.






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