Don't have an account yet?

Click here to register »


I am already registered - Login:




Lot 1022* - A204 Decorative Arts - Thursday, 30. March 2023, 10.00 AM

THE BLESSING CHRIST CHILD

Renaissance, Italy, end of the 15th or 19th century. After a model of the Christ Child giving a blessing by Desiderio da Settignano for an aumbry in the Basilica of Saint Lawrence, Florence, 1461.
White marble sculpted all-around. Depiction of the Christ Child with his right hand raised in a gesture of blessing and holding a laurel wreath with nails in his left hand. Fine modeling of the short curly hair and naturalistic depiction of the skin folds. The boy is supported by a stepped rock on a round base.
H 58 cm.

Scuffed at the left hand.

Provenance:
- Private property, Bonn, until 2019.
- German private collection, acquired from the above.

The motif of the Blessing Christ Child is based on a figure on the top of the marble altar in the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Florence, which was made by Desiderio da Settignano (ca. 1430-1464) in 1461. Commissioned by the Medici family, the sacramental altar shows the subtlety and range of Desiderio's sculptural skill, from the central "schiacciato" bas-relief of the adoring angels to the crowning statuette in the round pediment of the standing Christ Child. The altar was such an influential work that individual elements, such as the Christ Child, were copied throughout Tuscany. One reason for the production of these copies was that Desiderio's 'Bambino' was taken from the altar for devotional purposes. It is known that another Christ Child by Baccio da Montelupo took his place above the tabernacle. Several marble copies with slightly varying attributes (globe, apple, symbols of martyrdom) were made at different times. Comparable examples and variants of the Blessing Christ Child can be found in the Louvre (Inv. No. RF 1218), there, attributed to a successor of Settignano or Baccio da Montelupo, or in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence), attributed to the sculptor Francesco di Simone Ferrucci. A polychrome-painted terracotta Christ figure is part of the collection in the Museo Bardini in Florence (Inv. No. 706). Another example of the motif, attributed to Mino da Fiesole, is in the Bode Museum in Berlin (Inv. No. 5006). A stucco fragment of Jesus as a Boy, also by an imitator of Settignano, is likewise in the Bode Museum (Inv. No. 1726).
The item on offer, which comes from a German private collection and was previously also owned by a German family, is a high-quality, masterfully executed work, the dating of which, however, cannot be definitively determined.
Cf. Marc Bormand, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi & Nicholas Penny (Eds.) Desiderio da Settignano, Sculptor of Renaissance Florence, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2007, p. 236 ff. (chapter on the Blessing Christ Child).


CHF 10 000 / 15 000 | (€ 10 310 / 15 460)