Florence, circa 1500 The Virgin and Child High relief in terracotta Moulded and finished by hand; presented on a later metal base H. 68 cm (26 ¾ in.) l. 58 cm (22 ¾ in.) Provenance: Bukowski, Stockholm, autumn 1976 (cat.no. 316), where it was acquired Berndoff-Nybo collection, Copenhagen, then by descent. Comparative bibliographies: G. Passavant, Zu einigen toskanischen Terrakotta-Madonnen der Frühreniassance, in Mitteilungen der Kunsthistorischen Institutes zu Florenz, 31, 1987, pp. 197-236, esp. p. 214, fig.20 (as Sienese, unconvincingly). A P. Darr and A. Bostrom, Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Art, London 2002, I, pp.85-87, no. 49; II, no. 264. A terracotta high relief of the Madonna and Child, Florence, circa 1500, cast and finished by hand when in the 'leathery' state This lot is presented with a Thermoluminescence test carried out in 2015 attesting to the certainty of its dating. *Information for buyers: Lot from outside the EEC: to the commissions and taxes indicated in the general terms and conditions of purchase, import VAT (5.5% of the hammer price) must be added. *Information to the buyers : Lot from outside the EEC : an import tax (5,5 % of the hammer price) will be due, in addition to the commissions and taxes indicated in the general conditions of purchase. This fascinating depiction of the Virgin and Child is a relief derived from a composition known from numerous examples in different media, ranging from terracotta to papier-mâché and plaster, often cheerfully painted in naturalistic colours to conceal the basic materials. In the past, it has been attributed to Ghiberti and other masters, in the belief that it came at the end of their production of devotional images during the second and third quarters of the Quattrocento. There are almost as many different opinions as there were experts, of which Darr & Bostrom (see Related Literature) provide a useful list. It was not until the 1920s that doubts arose, Schottmüller (1922) arguing for the 1470s, while a decade later Venturi (1935) associated the composition with Andrea Sansovino, with a date of around 1500. Darr states that "the attribution is not convincing, but the dating must have been inspired by the classical features of the Madonna and the plastic exuberance of the drapery and the Child's head". The eminent contemporary specialist in Florentine sculpture, Giancarlo Gentilini, in 1999 "proposed that the unusual resolution of the Madonna's right sleeve might suggest a dating of the late fifteenth or even early sixteenth century". In the meantime, modern technology has been put to use and some of the terracottas have been dated approximately by the process of thermoluminescence. Among those found to be 'erroneous' is the second version from Detroit (21.193): according to Daybreak Systems, it dates back only about a century. The terracotta here was dated in 2015 by the Oxford laboratory at between three and five hundred years old, but even that rules out it having anything directly to do with Ghiberti, as it dates after 1515 at the earliest. If we accept this hypothesis and consider Gentilini's observation about "the unusual resolution of the right sleeve", we focus on the efforts of other artists of the same period or later: even Michelangelo comes into the picture. If we consider his many Madonnas sculpted in marble, the Madonna of Bruges of 1505 gives us a glimpse of how he treated these banal details of fashion or of his own imagination. The appearance of the button, which creates a V-shaped pull in the thick fabric that he fastens around his wrist, and the flare of the fabric of the hem of this sleeve, further back against his forehead, indicate a similar arrangement to that of our terracotta. A similar treatment of the lower sleeve and wrist, with a clear slit upwards from the wrist and a line of stitching stretching further towards the elbow, is found in Michelangelo's statue of The Contemplative Life, sculpted in 1542 to complete the Tomb of Pope Julius II. If we then turn to his paintings, and in particular to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, with its vast repertoire of motifs, we find other clues. The search for sleeves and cuffs corresponding to the unusual representation on the terracotta reveals fascinating parallels that corroborate Gentilini's feelings about the probable date of these details and therefore of the sculpture as a whole. The cuff of the prophet Joel shows the ends of the split cuff spreading out on either side and a possible seam running up the sleeve. In addition, the detail of a half-sleeve worn by one of Christ's female ancestors - the hem of which is highlighted by a row of stitches in a folded and sewn piece of fabric - is an example of Michelangelo's concern, even for such details, to "bring to life" his depictions of biblical figures. Michelangelo's almost unbelievable fascination with these haberdashery details can be seen, however, in the extraordinary imaginary costume of the Libyan Sibyl. Her thick yellow outer garment, hemmed in light grey and edged with a pattern of golden rope - perhaps gold thread - is slit at the side and held in place only by a tight strap around the waist, just below the breast. The rounded shape of the upper outer corner of the garment is very similar to the small cuff of the Virgin's jacket on our terracotta relief. These specific observations suggest that the composition dates from the High Renaissance, perhaps between around 1515 and 1525. It remains for scholarship to determine a possible author, among the plethora of skilled sculptors specialising in the manufacture of terracotta in the Oltr'Arno district of Florence, such as Sandro di Lorenzo di Smeraldo (1483- c.1554?), formerly known as the Master of the Unruly Children (see Lorenzo Principi, The Master of the Unruly Children) : River God and Bacchus, cat. exh., Trinity Fine Art, London 2016 - following earlier guidance from Charles Avery, Fingerprints of the Artist: European Terra-cotta Sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, New York / Washington D.C., 1981, pp. 46-49, no. 9). This fascinating representation of the Virgin and Child is a relief derived from a composition known from numerous examples in different media, ranging from terracotta to papier-mâché and plaster, often cheerfully painted in naturalistic colours to disguise the basic materials. In the past, it has been attributed to Ghiberti and other masters, in the belief that it came at the end of their production of devotional images during the second and third quarters of the Quattrocento. There are almost as many different opinions as there were experts, of which Darr & Bostrom (see Related Literature) provide a useful list. It was not until the 1920s that doubts arose, Schottmüller (1922) arguing for the 1470s, while a decade later Venturi (1935) associated the composition with Andrea Sansovino, with a date of around 1500. Darr states that "the attribution is not convincing, but the dating must have been inspired by the classical features of the Madonna and the plastic exuberance of the drapery and the Child's head". The eminent contemporary specialist in Florentine sculpture, Giancarlo Gentilini, in 1999 "proposed that the unusual resolution of the Madonna's right sleeve might suggest a dating of the late fifteenth or even early sixteenth century". In the meantime, modern technology has been put to use and some of the terracottas have been dated approximately by the process of thermoluminescence. Among those found to be 'erroneous' is the second version from Detroit (21.193): according to Daybreak Systems, it dates back only about a century. The terracotta here was dated in 2015 by the Oxford laboratory at between three and five hundred years old, but even that rules out it having anything directly to do with Ghiberti, as it dates after 1515 at the earliest. If we accept this hypothesis and consider Gentilini's observation about "the unusual resolution of the right sleeve", we focus on the efforts of other artists of the same period or later: even Michelangelo comes into the picture. If we consider his many Madonnas sculpted in marble, the Madonna of Bruges of 1505 gives us a glimpse of how he treated these banal details of fashion or of his own imagination. The appearance of the button, which creates a V-shaped pull in the thick fabric that he fastens around his wrist, and the flare of the fabric of the hem of this sleeve, further back against his forehead, indicate a similar arrangement to that of our terracotta. A similar treatment of the lower sleeve and wrist, with a clear slit upwards from the wrist and a line of stitching stretching further towards the elbow, is found in Michelangelo's statue of The Contemplative Life, sculpted in 1542 to complete the Tomb of Pope Julius II. If we then turn to his paintings, and in particular to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, with its vast repertoire of motifs, we find other clues. The search for sleeves and cuffs corresponding to the unusual representation on the terracotta reveals fascinating parallels that corroborate Gentilini's feelings about the probable date of these details and therefore of the sculpture as a whole. The cuff of the prophet Joel shows the ends of the split cuff spreading out on either side and a possible seam running up the sleeve. In addition, the detail of a half-sleeve worn by one of Christ's female ancestors - the hem of which is highlighted by a row of stitches in a folded and sewn piece of fabric - is an example of the preoccupation of the sculptor with the cuff. Michelangelo's concern, even with such details, to "bring to life" his depictions of biblical figures. Michelangelo's almost unbelievable fascination with these haberdashery details can be seen, however, in the extraordinary imaginary costume of the Libyan Sibyl. Her thick yellow outer garment, hemmed in light grey and edged with a pattern of golden rope - perhaps gold thread - is slit at the side and held in place only by a tight strap around the waist, just below the breast. The rounded shape of the upper outer corner of the garment is very similar to the small cuff of the Virgin's jacket on our terracotta relief. These specific observations suggest that the composition dates from the High Renaissance, perhaps between around 1515 and 1525. It remains for scholarship to determine a possible author, among the plethora of skilled sculptors specialising in the manufacture of terracotta in the Oltr'Arno district of Florence, such as Sandro di Lorenzo di Smeraldo (1483- c.1554 ?), formerly known as the Master of the Unruly Children (see Lorenzo Principi, The Master of the Unruly Children): River God and Bacchus, cat. exh., Trinity Fine Art, London 2016 - following earlier indications by Charles Avery, Fingerprints of the Artist: European Terra-cotta Sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, New York / Washington D.C., 1981, pp. 46-49, no. 9). We would like to thank Dr Charles Avery for writing this leaflet.