An Italian painted terracotta group of the Madonna and Child, by the 'Master of the Unruly Children', first quarter 16th century

Stefano Bardini, Florence
Walter and Catalina von Pannwitz, Berlin and Heemstede, acquired from the above in 1912

Abraded surface, small losses, and chipping throughout. Restorations throughout including: some of drapery, necks of both figures, Madonna's proper right fingers and Child's proper right arm, area around feet and base, and reverse (with some consolidation). Two horizontal cracks to body, possibly extending through sculpture.
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The composition and figure style of the present group of the Virgin and Child reflects an amalgam of Florentine Renaissance sources primarily the work of the so-called 'Master of the Unruly Children'. Bode assigned this name to a cohesive group of terracotta statuettes of women that had in common, among other details, one or more mischievous children surrounding her amply clothed body. The facial features of the women, often depicting Madonnas, are always diminutive and delicate with high, rounded foreheads and hair bound with a cloth. This Master clearly worked within the spheres of influence of Benedetto da Maiano and Jacopo Sansovino (his second period in Florence).
The traditional depiction of the Virgin and Child in the Renaissance typically showed the Virgin enthroned with the Child on her lap or in half-length (as in a relief or roundel) with the Child in her arms or standing on a book. Here, she is standing and supporting the Child in her hands and on her proper left hip. His position, upright and with crossed legs, is repeated in several compositions by Benedetto. Many of his half-length groups in marble display the same arm positions and a standing group in the Pietrapennata Parish Church in Palizzi (Carl, op. cit., pl. 32) includes comparable arm positions and facial features, particularly in the Child.
Sénéchal illustrates a standing group of the Virgin and Child by the 'Master of the Unruly Children' of similar size, drapery, facial type and position of the Virgin with one foot resting on a step. The Virgin's stance, with one leg raised, a compositional device similarly employed in several paintings by Andrea del Sarto with whom Sansovino shared a studio, is echoed in a sculpture in Budapest by Jacopo Sansovino (Boucher, op. cit., figs 58 and 59).

A Thermoluminescence Analysis Report from Oxford Authentication, Ltd. dated November 24, 2011, states that sample N111p99, taken from the present lot, was last fired between 300 and 600 years ago (1411-1711 AD).

RELATED LITERATURE

E. N. Lusanna and L. Faedo, Il Museo Bardini a Firenze, Milano, 1986
B. Boucher, The Sculpture of Jacopo Sansovino, New Haven, 1996
D. Carl, Benedetto da Maiano: ein Florentiner Bildhauer an der Schwelle zur Hochrenaissance, Regensburg, 2006
P. Sénéchal, Giovan Francesco Rustici 1475-1554. Un Sculpteur de la Renaissance entre Florence et Paris, Paris, 2007