Francesco di Simone Ferrucci
(Italy 1437–1493)
- Title
- Madonna and Child
- Year
- circa 1480
- Media category
- Sculpture
- Materials used
- marble
- Dimensions
-
71.5 x 55.0 x 13.5cm sight; 90.0 x 72.0 x 18.0cm frame (irreg.)
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1971
- Accession number
- 125.1971
- Location
- 15th–19th c European art
- Further information
The sentimentality and modesty of this relief reflect changing patterns of devotion in Italy at the time of the first flowering of the Renaissance. The ethereal, queenly Madonnas of medieval art have been superseded by a more human, and altogether more accessible conception of the Virgin. Here is a Madonna to be approached, perhaps kissed, and a Holy Child to be adored. Ferrucci trained in the famous Florentine workshop of Verrocchio, perhaps side by side with the young Leonardo da Vinci. Certainly this marble manifests the essential sweetness that Leonardo elaborated on the basis of Verrocchio's manner. Though an artist of the second rank, Ferrucci surpasses himself in this work. The modulations of drapery, the naturalistic rendering of the figures - especially the rotundity of the infant Christ - and the attention given to Mary's look of dreamy reverie: all these contribute to a work of art that is at once sacred and secular.
AGNSW Handbook, 1999.
- Bibliography (4)
-
Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 110 (colour illus.).
Clem Lloyd (Author), Peter Sekuless (Author), Australia's national collections, North Ryde, 1980, 254 (colour illus.).
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 19 (colour illus.).
Annabel Davie (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook, Domain, 1988, 36, 37.
