Sir John Pope-Hennessy, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum and renowned scholar of the Italian Renaissance, remembered seeing this small roundel at the home of the humanitarian Violet Mond, Baroness Melchett (1867–1945), and thinking it looked “good and genuine.” In 1971, the worn areas of the glaze and losses in the fired clay he had seen on the relief had disappeared under a layer of terracotta-colored paint and plaster. This was apparently done “to produce a more acceptable and even surface,” in Pope-Hennessey’s words. Mr. Simon took Pope-Hennessy’s advice and had a conservator remove these accretions, revealing the surface visible today. There remained, however, uncertainty about the attribution to Luca della Robbia, or even whether it might be a later copy, as many such roundels exist.
In 2012, thermoluminescence analysis was performed on powdered samples taken from the roundel, yielding a result consistent with a mid-fifteenth-century firing date. This new information supports the inclusion of the Norton Simon roundel with other copies Wilhelm von Bode attributed to Luca in 1900.
Details
- Artist Name: Cast from a model by Luca della Robbia (Italian, 1400-1482)
- Title: Virgin and Child with Six Angels
- Date: mid 15th century
- Medium: Glazed terracotta roundel
- Dimensions: 15-3/4 in. (40.0 cm) diameter
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1965.1.106.S
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Elizabeth Rigby, Lady Charles Eastlake (1809-1893), sold (London, Christie’s, 5 July 1894, lot 47) to;
[Charles Davis, London].
Dr. Ludwig Mond (1839-1909), by 1905, by inheritance to his son;
Alfred Moritz Mond, the Right Honorable Lord Melchett (1868-1930), by inheritance to his wife;
Violet, Lady Melchett. 1930, to her “legatee" (London, Sotheby’s, 18 June 1946, lot 112) to;
[Duveen Brothers, New York (stock no. 30007), sold 1965 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
[on loan]
- Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1913 to 1913
Loan Exhibition of Italian Gothic and Early Renaissance Sculpture
- Detroit Institute of Arts, 1938-01 to 1938-02
Lock, Stock and Barrel: Norton Simon's Purchase of Duveen Brothers Gallery
- Norton Simon Museum, 2014-10-24 to 2015-02-16
- Venturi, Adolfo, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, p. 555
- Marquand, Allan, Luca della Robbia,
- Bode, Wilhelm, Denkmaler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas, 1892, pp. 75-76
- Marquand, Allan, American Journal of Archaelogy, 1894, p. 4-8
- Cavalucci, J; and E. Molinier, Les Della Robbia, 1897,
- Jarbuch der Koniglich Preussischen Sammlungen, 1900, p. 26
- Bode, Wilhelm, Jahrbuch der Koniglich Preussichen Kunstsammlungen, 1900, p. 26
- Bode, Wilhelm, Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance, 1902, pp. 169-170
- Schubring, Paul, Luca della Robbia und seine Familie, 1905, p. 84
- Schottmüller, Frida, Die Italienischen und Spanischen Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barocks, 1913,
- Burlamacchi, Luca della Robbia, 1914, p. 82
- Bode, Wilhelm, Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance, 1928, pp. 122-123
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. D86 p. 448
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