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See the original at Bode Museum in Berlin
Pazzi Madonna
by Donatello, 1422
Details
- Year
- 1422
- Medium
- Marble relief
- Size
- 74.5 cm × 73 cm
The Pazzi Madonna is a marble relief sculpture created by Donatello between 1420 and 1425 in Florence. The work stands among the earliest and finest examples of the artist's signature rilievo schiacciato technique, or "flattened relief," which creates the illusion of depth using extremely shallow carving.
The composition shows the Virgin Mary in three-quarter view, her face in profile as she leans toward the Christ Child. Their foreheads touch in a gesture of tender intimacy. Mary's left hand, fingers braced, supports the infant with foreshortening that demonstrates Donatello's command of perspective. The figures appear life-size, set within a niche whose receding lines converge at a single vanishing point.
The Pazzi family, prominent Florentine bankers, likely commissioned this work for private devotion in their home. The relief was so admired that numerous copies were made during the Renaissance. Dealer Stefano Bardini sold the original to the Bode Museum in 1886 for 20,000 marks. The piece now anchors the museum's Italian Renaissance sculpture collection.
