Italian, probably Rome, late 17th / early 18th century | Virgin and Child

The inspiration for this seemingly unique 17th century bronze of the Madonna and Child derives from Algardi’s well-known model of the same subject, an excellent example of which is in the Bode Museum, Berlin (inv. 7124). The Christ Child is cradled in the Virgin’s right arm, reaching forward with his right arm ‘in a gesture of benevolence but not benediction’, as in the Algardi (Montagu, op. cit., p. 348). However, the similarly heavily clad Virgin here looks in the same direction as the Christ Child and touches his feet with her left hand in contrast to Algardi’s model in which the Virgin looks to her left and offers out her left hand - which has led to its moniker as the ‘Virgin of the Rosary’. 

The present bronze is very finely chased. The Virgin’s robe is finished with a matted texture that contrasts with her smooth mantle, whilst her headdress is decorated with crisp parallel lines over her delicately chased hair. Algardi influenced many prolific Roman sculptors active in the second half of the 17th century. In addition to his principal assistants Domenico Guidi and Ercole Ferrata, sculptors from Rome to Bologna and beyond perpetuated Algardi’s classical aesthetic which is echoed in the present intriguing bronze group. 

RELATED LITERATURE

J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, New Haven and London, 1985, vol. 2, pp. 348-350