Virgin and Child (1500–1510): Art, History and Details

Virgin and Child (1500–1510) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Benedetto Buglioni (Italian, 1461–1521).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This small devotional object differs stylistically from Buglioni's Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Francis and Anthony Abbot (1921.1180), also in the museum's collection. In contrast to the other work, the faces of the Madonna and Child are significantly less expressive, and the passages of exposed skin have been left unglazed. The Madonna holds a nude Christ on her left arm and wears a mantle of blue with green lining and a maroon tunic with a yellow collar and cuffs. Her bright yellow shoes and the purple of her tunic are characteristic of Buglioni's color scheme and can also be seen in the other work. The tabernacle frame is probably contemporary to the figures, although it may not have been created specifically for this altarpiece. Buglioni likely worked in the studio of Andrea della Robbia, where he would have studied the family's techniques for glazing terracotta. The frame is classically inspired, with Corinthian capitals and Buglioni's characteristic egg and dart moldings. The facial type in this Madonna and Child recalls Buglioni's Madonna delle Grazie in Florence's Palazzo Frescobaldi, and because of this similarity, the scholar Allan Marquand attributed the Cleveland Madonna and Child to Buglioni in 1921, although this attribution has since been questioned.

Object facts

• Title: Virgin and Child
• Date: 1500–1510
• Creator attribution: Benedetto Buglioni (Italian, 1461–1521)
• Culture: Italy, late 15th-early 16th Century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: glazed terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 123.8 x 68.6 x 15.3 cm (48 3/4 x 27 x 6 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1916.1005

Collection credit

The Holden Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• W. M. M. “An Enthroned Madonna and Child with Saints by Benedetto Buglioni.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 9, no. 2 (February 1922): 22–26.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.