DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO
CIRCA 1430-146 417 Studies of the Virgin and Child
Virgin and Child Enthroned"
Pen and brown ink, incised for transfer (recto); pen and
brown ink and black chalk (verso); H: 19.3 cm (yVsin.);
W:27.8cm(ioI5/i6in.)
88.GG.ioy
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: None.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Geneva; art market,
London.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Goldner, "A Drawing by Desiderio
da Settignano," Burlington Magazine 131, no. 1036 (July
1989), pp. 469-73-THIS SHEET APPEARED IN 1989, WHEN IT WAS PUB-
lished as the only known example of the draughtsman-
ship of Desiderio da Settignano (Goldner 1989). The
recto consists of seven studies of the Virgin and Child,
drawn in pen and ink over elaborate stylus underdraw-
ings that differ in many details from the pen drawings
over them. The style of the recto, with its somewhat no-
tational description of detail and minimum of internal
modeling, relates it to a sheet by Antonio Rossellino in
the Uffizi (inv. 38 F). The touch in the Getty drawing is
lighter and more delicate, however, with flatter forms
and more intimate emotions, and is closer in spirit to the
sculpture of Desiderio. The sketch at the bottom right is
very similar in composition and significant details to De-
siderio 's Panciatichi Madonna (Florence, Bargello) and
may well have been made as a study for it. More gener-
ally, the third sketch from the left in the top row recalls
his Foulc Madonna (Philadelphia Museum of Art).
Given the freely drawn character of the stylus indenta-
tions, these studies can hardly be copies after Desiderio's
sculptures.
The verso is more broadly drawn and has consid-
erable black chalk underdrawing. Given the profile for-
mat, it was probably intended as a study for a relief, per-
haps in terra-cotta. The ornamental motifs—the sphinx
and specific floral designs—closely relate the verso to
Desiderio's vocabulary as it appears on the Marsuppini
r
tomb in Santa Croce, Florence. In addition the caryatid
figure on the throne is analogous to one found on a
candlestick borne by an angel on the tabernacle in San
Lorenzo, Florence. As this ornamental repertoire was
unique to Desiderio, it strongly supports the attribution
of the Museum's sheet to him.
This and the Rossellino sheet in the Uffizi are im-
portant illustrations of the use of drawings by sculptors
in mid-fifteenth-century Florence. Such drawings pro-
vided both the means for developing images and designs
to be used by workshop assistants to produce the nu-
merous terra-cotta and stucco reliefs of the period. They
may also have been employed to allow patrons to choose
designs to their liking.verso54 ITALIAN SCHOOL • DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO