ROBBIA, Luca della
(b. 1399/1400, Firenze, d. 1482, Firenze)

Madonna and Child

1445-50
Glazed terracotta, partially gilt, 48 x 39 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This work is referred to as the Bliss Madonna after its last owner. The Madonna is shown within an arched niche behind whose ledge she seems to stand. The curvaceous child toddles on the ledge, steadied by his solicitous young mother. This type of Madonna became especially familiar in painting; of all niche-and-ledge Madonna paintings, Fra Filippo Lippi's Medici Madonna is closest to the Bliss Madonna in the strong similarities of the Christ Child open pose. It is assumed that in this case it was Luca della Robbia who may have influenced Fra Filippo; it is well established that the impact of sculpture on painting was strong well into the 1440s.




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