This Madonna, presented in the guise of a queen, as indicated by the fleurde- lis crown on her head, stands on a polygonal base, holding her seminaked little son and affectionately gripping his right foot (his left foot has been lost). 

She wears a reddish-purple tunic covered by a golden cloak that falls in heavy folds at the front and the sides, becoming more stretched out at the back. There are some sections missing from the cloak on the sides of the Madonna’s head and the gold that covers it is scratched in some places, allowing us to glimpse the ground beneath. Overall, the original colouring of the statue is largely preserved, albeit rather worn. There are numerous xylophagous insect holes in the bodies and faces of the two figures. Nevertheless, this does not prevent us from seeing the good workmanship in this statuette. Its small size suggests that it was originally intended as a piece for personal devotion. 

Like various other works in the Cerruti Collection, this statuette is also documented as having been in the possession of the famous antiques dealer Carlo De Carlo in Florence. In October 2000, the sculpture was exhibited in one of the numerous sales of the merchant’s assets organised after his death (December 1999) and held at Semanzato auction house.¹ Shortly afterwards it entered the collection of Francesco Federico Cerruti. The Florentine auction house dated the carving to the 14th century, which seems highly probable. Meanwhile, it only included a vague reference to its style, placing it in “central-northern Italy”. When it came up for auction, the Madonna was found to have been listed: this means that its cultural importance had been recognised and the state was exploring the possibility - evidently not pursued - of purchasing it by exercising its right of first refusal. In the report drawn up for the purpose of the public acquisition, signed by Mario Scalini and Maria Pia Zaccheddu, the work is described as having been produced in Florence and dated roughly to the 1360s.²The two ministerial officials recognised the influence of Andrea Orcagna, the great master of the marble tabernacle in Orsanmichele, who was a painter, as well as a woodcarver, and compared it to the monumental Crucifix attributed to Orcagna in the central church of San Carlo dei Lombardi in Florence, particularly as regards its elegant polychrome colouring.³ The link with Florence has also been supported by Luciano Bellosi who, albeit briefly, mentioned the Virgin as being one of the most interesting pieces in De Carlo’s possession.⁴ In his opinion, the work could be dated to the mid-14th century and compared to the widely debated relief with the Sacrament of Marriage that once ran along the north side of the bell tower of the cathedral in this Tuscan city and is now on display in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.⁵Despite the objective difficulties involved in looking back to a context that is now very patchy and has curiously not been the objective of extensive study,⁶the idea of placing the carving among the rare examples of Gothic-era Florentine woodwork is certainly an attractive one. This line of thought particularly seems to be suggested by the strong column-like structure of the figure, which does not include any allusion to the usual contrapposto, or projection of the hip, of Gothic virgins, and the clean-cut structure of the folds, particularly evident when looking at the sides and the back. With all due caution, we can therefore try looking at the many sculpture workshops around the city - naturally starting with the one at Santa Maria del Fiore - to find out more about the small and mysterious Cerruti sculpture. Its author could be rooted within that milieu, probably during the second half of the 14th century, drawing upon models that were also shared by works such as the elegant wooden Madonna and Child in a private collection, carved in the 1390s by a young and promising Niccolò di Pietro Lamberti.⁷ 

[Federica Siddi]

1 Semenzato, Florence, Eredi De Carlo. Importanti mobili…, 19 October 2000, lot 185. 

2 An undated copy of the document is in the Cerruti Collection Archives. 

3 Regarding the work: Rasario 1996. 

4 L. Bellosi, “Ricordi di Carlo De Carlo e della sua collezione”, in Florence 2001, p. 24. 

5 For a recent summary of the construction of the Bell Tower, started in 1334 on the basis of a design by Giotto and continued over the following decades, see E. Neri Lusanna, “Dopo Arnolfo: Giotto e Andrea Pisano nel Campanile della cattedrale”, in Guerrieri 2017, pp. 61-75. As was the case for the entire cycle of Sacraments, the authorship of the Marriage was widely debated. The names mentioned included Alberto Arnoldi (L. Becherucci, in Becherucci, Brunetti 1969-70, I, pp. 239-240) and Gino Micheli da Castello (Kreytenberg 1979; 1984, pp. 72-77). For a link between some of the marbles in the Florentine series (the ones attributed, in keeping with Kreytenberg, to Maso di Banco) and the tomb of Taddeo Pepoli in San Domenico in Bologna: F. Negri Arnoldi, “Sulla paternità di un ignoto monumento campano e di un noto sepolcro Bolognese”, in Garms, Romanini 1990, pp. 431-438. 

6 Alongside the still fundamental research by Margrit Lisner (1970) on wooden crucifixes, see now, with an excursus in which space is made from some of the principal known examples and with various bibliographical comparisons: D. Parenti, “Breve itinerario nella scultura lignea policroma a Firenze prima del Quattrocento”, in Florence 2016, pp. 25-35. 

7 On the sculpture, also in the possession of De Carlo for a period of time: Kreytenberg 1988-89; L. Bellosi, “Ricordi di Carlo De Carlo e della sua collezione”, in Florence 2001, p. 24.