Circle of Donato di Niccolò Betto Bardi, called Donatello (circa 1386-1466) Italian, Florence, mid-15th century

Otto Lanz, Amsterdam, by the 1920s;
and thence by descent to his granddaughter, circa 1980;
from whom purchased by the present owner

H.W. van Os, 'Otto Lanz en het verzamelen van vroege Italiaanse kunst in Nederland', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 26, 1978, no. 4, p. 155, fig. 9
F. van ’t Veen, Het Nederlandse Palazzo. Verzamelingen van Vroeg-Italiaanse kunst, exh. cat. Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, Amsterdam, 2008, fig. 15

Overall the condition of the stucco is good with dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. The top right corner is reattached. There are a number of stable fissures running through the terracotta which may be restored breaks including; one running from the top of the relief down through the Virgin's halo, one at the lower left corner and another at the centre of the relief to the bottom running through the Virgin's drapery to Christ's feet. There is a restoration to the top edge of the relief at the centre at one of the attendant's hands. There are a number of small losses including to the halos of the two far left figures. There are losses to the polychromy throughout particularly to the high points, such as the Virgin's legs and the far left bottom figure. There are one or two small holes to the relief. There is a small loss to the bottom right figure's nose. There is dirt and wear to the mount consistent with age.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This dramatic stucco relief relates closely to the starkly naturalistic late works of Donatello. More specifically, there is a connection with the characters and modelling of the Entombment in the Basilica of Sant’Antonio in Padua and the Lamentation in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv .no. 8552-1863). It is therefore not surprising that it was one of the centrepieces in the collection of Otto Lanz (fig. 1), a Swiss surgeon who amassed a famous collection of Italian Renaissance art in his sumptuous villa on Amsterdam’s Museum Square.

From 1443 to 1453 Donatello worked in Padua. Among his major commissions there was a high altar for the Santo with four large narrative reliefs representing the life of Saint Anthony and a number of smaller reliefs, including an Entombment carved from Nanto stone. Donatello had earlier made remarkable experiments in his large stucco medallions for the Old Sacristy of the San Lorenzo in Florence and took his advances further by introducing sketchy figures and a sinuous surface. The close proximity of the figures, the variety of the angles at which their faces are represented, their subtly different expressions, and angular drapery folds of the Paduan Entombment all lay at the basis of the present Lamentation. The composition of the figure with the raised arms to the right in the Entombment clearly inspired the background figure in the present stucco. Equally, the gesture and angular jaw and nose of the male represented in profile to the far right in the V&A’s Lamentation, which is also associated with Donatello’s later work, finds parallels in the present relief with the standing female saint on the far left and the enigmatic figure just behind the Virgin in the background respectively. The varying angles of the haloes are equally a Donatello invention.

The influence of Donatello’s later reliefs on both sculptors and painters in northern Italy was to prove enormous. Bartolommeo Bellano, one of Donatello’s pupils, for example, conspicuously refers to his master’s reliefs in Samson destroying the temple of the Philistines in the Santo, which is crowded with despairing figures much like those in the Entombment (illustrated in Sgarbi, op.cit., no. 6). Added to that, there are instances of early copying, such as the Padua University’s gesso relief of the two singing Angels from the Santo (inv. no. 5878) and the Nativity in the Museo Bardini (inv. no. MCF-MB 1922-686), which still spark debates about the workings of Donatello’s workshop and the liberties his followers may have taken with his compositions. The connoisseurship involved in understanding Donatello's sphere of influence must have appealed to Otto Lanz (1836-1935). He was among a generation of collectors, which included Fritz Mannheimer and Henry Clay Frick, to which Italian Renaissance Art was available in vast quantities. Being able to discern the hand of the foremost masters was the mark of a true gentleman. The central location of the present relief in Lanz’ salon suggests it was prized for both its importance and as a subject of debate. Born in Steffisburg, Lanz made fame and fortune through his advancements in thyroid-gland and appendix surgery and eventually became a professor at the University of Amsterdam. Lanz died in 1935, leaving his widow and son in charge of the art. The collection was forcibly sold to Hitler in 1941, but was thankfully returned to the Netherlands en bloc shortly after the War. The present relief was one of the last pieces to be sold by the heirs.

RELATED LITERATURE
H.W. van Os, 'Otto Lanz en het verzamelen van vroege Italiaanse kunst in Nederland', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 26, 1978, no. 4, pp. 147-174; A. Rosenauer (ed.), Italian renaissance sculpture in the time of Donatello, exh. cat. Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, 1985, no. 32; V. Sgarbi, Donatello e il suo tempo. Il bronzetto a Padova nel Quattrocento e nel Cinquecento, exh. cat. Musei Civici, Padua, Milan, 2001, pp. 60-61, no. 5; B. Paolozzi Strozzi and M. Bormand (eds.), Springtime of the Renaissance. Sculpture and the arts in Florence 1400-60, exh. cat. Palazzo Strozzi, Florence and Musée du Louvre, Paris, Florence, 2013, pp. 430-431, no, VIII.4.a and b