Madonna and Child

between 1445 and 1450

Luca della Robbia Italian, 1399-1482

On View

European: Medieval and Renaissance, Level 2, West Wing

Madonna and Child: 1 of Collection Gallery

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance page
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.
Audio Transcript

Please note: This section is empty

About the Artwork

Although Luca della Robbia also worked in marble, bronze, and wood, he is best known for introducing enameled terracotta sculpture around 1440 and for founding a family dynasty of sculptors working in this medium. Typical of his terracotta sculpture, this relief is one of four versions of the so-called Genoa Madonna (one of which was originally in Genoa), each with slight differences in their modeling and expression.

Title Madonna and Child

Artwork Date between 1445 and 1450

Artist Luca della Robbia

Life Dates 1399-1482

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. Italian

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Enameled terracotta

Dimensions Unframed: 19 1/2 × 14 1/2 inches (49.5 × 36.8 cm) Framed: 40 × 29 1/2 inches, 42 pounds (101.6 × 74.9 cm, 19.1 kg)

Classification Sculpture

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit City of Detroit Purchase

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 29.355

Markings

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance

Dr. Eduard Georg Simon [1864-1929] (Berlin, Germany);
1929-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

Bode, W. Munchener Jahrbuch der Bilden Kunst. 1906, pp. 28-30.

Marquand, A. Della Robbias in America. Princeton, 1912, p. 8, no. 2.

Marquand, A. Luca della Robbia. Princeton, 1914, p. 153, no. 39.

Walther, Josephine. "A Genoese Madonna by Luca Della Robbia." Bulletin of the DIA 11, no. 3 (December 1929): pp. 34-35, p. 33 (ill.).

"America Now Has Five Luca della Robbias." The Art Digest: The News-Magazine of Art, Mid-December 1929, p.8, (ill. on cover).

Valentiner, W.R. Italian Gothic and Early Renaissance Sculptures. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, 1938, no. 33 (ill.) [unpaginated].

Masterpieces of Art. Exh. cat., New York World's Fair. New York, 1939, no. 425.

Planiscig, L. Luca della Robbia. Florence, 1948, p. 69, pl. 96.

Decorative Arts of the Italian Renaissance 1400-1600. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1958, p. 72, no. 154.

Pope-Hennessy, John. Luca della Robia. Ithaca, 1980, pp. 65-66, cat. no. 41.

Avery, C. Studies in European Sculpture. London, 1981, p. 6.

"Family Art Game," DIA Advertising Supplement, Detroit News, April 14, 1985, p. 32 (ill.).

100 Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, pp. 136, 137 (ill.).

Italian Renaissance Sculpture in the Time of Donatello. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts and Kimbell Art Museum. Detroit and Fort Worth, 1985, pp. 155-156, p. 60, pl. 13.

Darr, A.P. "A Valentiner Legacy: Italian Sculpture in Detroit." Apollo 124 (December 1986): p. 480.

Fusco, M. "The Genius of the Quattrocento" Attenzione 8, no. 1 (January-February 1986): p. 53 (ill.).

Kecks, R. Madonna und Kind: das hausliche Andachtsbild in Florenz des 15. Jarhunderts. Berlin, 1988, p. 90.

Gentillini, G. I Della Robbia: La scultura invetriata nel Rinascimento, 2 vols. Florence, 1992, p. 102, 50, (ill.).

Darr, A.P., P. Barnet, A. Boström, C. Avery, et al. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts London, 2002, 2 vols., I, cat. 52.

Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, ed. Bruce Boucher. New Haven, 2001, pp. 118-119.

Cambareri, Marietta, et. al. Della Robbia Sculptures in American Collections. Exh. cat., The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 2016, pp. 91-93.

Paolozzi Strozzi, Beatrice, and Marc Bormand, eds. The Springtime of the Renaissance: Sculpture and the Arts in Florence 1400–60. Exh. cat., Palazzo Strozzi/Musée du Louvre. Florence, 2013, pp. 446–447 (ill.).

Motture, Peta, ed. Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance. Exh. cat., Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 2023, p. 171, cat. no. 2.22 (ill.).

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback