BENEDETTO BUGLIONI (FLORENCE 1459-1521) LATE 15TH CENTURY | LUNETTE OF THE MADONNA DELLA MISERICORDIA

The Virgin is depicted here in the center wearing a blue mantle over her shoulders, held open by flanking angels, enveloping and protecting a group of kneeling figures praying for salvation.

The iconography of the Madonna della Misericordia, or the Madonna of Mercy, was a popular theme in art since the 13^th century; the mantle was the symbol of dignity, of protection and of charity. 

This lunette is attributed to Benedetto Buglioni who was probably an apprentice in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio in the later 1570s. Buglioni refined his technique in modelling clay while studying under Andrea della Robbia, with whom he collaborated early in his career and later competed with. Stylistic affinity with the faces and body types of Buglioni’s angels in his Coronation of the Virgin in the Ognissanti, Florence (Gentilini, op.cit., p. 336) and a pair of standing angels and a pair of kneeling angels (Gentilini, op.cit., p. 352 and 353) further link this relief with Buglioni’s oeuvre. 

RELATED LITERATURE

Alan Marquand, Benedetto and Santi Buglioni. The brothers of Giovanni della Robbia, New York, 1972, pp. 20-21 nos. 18-22; 

Giancarlo Gentilini (cur.), I Della Robbia e l'arte nuova della scultura invetriata, Florence 1998, pp. 336 and pp. 352-353