Conservation generously funded by Christopher Todd Page.

This exquisite polychrome wood sculpture of the Madonna and Child entered the collection of Vittorio Cini in the summer of 1960, and ever since it has been housed in Palazzo Cini at San Vio, Venice. Scholars agree on dating the Madonna to around the second half of the 14th century. Its authorship, on the contrary, remains debated.

A few years after Vittorio Cini bought it, the Madonna was attributed to an unknown 14th-century Florentine sculptor. Building upon that initial attribution, the sculpture was latter assigned to the circle of Alberto Arnoldi and Giovanni di Ambrogio, two sculptors active in Florence in the late 14th century. This attribution seemed fairly convincing to a number of scholars and connoisseurs up until the latest catalog of the Cini Gallery, in which the Madonna has been given to an unknown master from the south-central region of Abruzzo. This surprising new theory is worth examining in some detail.

The new attribution appears to be based on a very compelling comparison of the Cini Madonna with an extraordinary wood sculpture of Saint Michael the Archangel made in the late 14th century for the collegiate of Città Sant’Angelo nearby Pescara, Abruzzo. The stylistic similarities are significant and can be easily distinguished in the facial features of the Virgin and Saint Michael—specifically, their thin and elongated noses, delicate lips, and pointy chins—and in the rendering of the drapery, in particular the sharp folds of their mantles.

As the research stands today, however, some doubts remain concerning the date and authorship of minor parts of the Cini Madonna. It is the case, for example, of the book that the Virgin holds in her right hand—a traditional iconographic motif whose symbolism refers to the Incarnation of Christ as the Word made flesh. According to some, the book could be a later replacement of the original, and the same has been argued for the little bird in the baby Jesus’ hand. These and other issues will be addressed by non-invasive, scientific analysis that will be conducted during the conservation campaign.

The Cini Madonna shows numerous cracks, lifting and flaking of paint, mostly caused by past exposure to humidity and temperature shifts. Both the Virgin and the Child were repainted several times over the last few centuries and are currently covered by numerous layers of non-original materials. The wood sculpture also suffers from an active infestation of wood-boring insects. The conservation treatment will address all of these issues, whereas scientific analysis will allow specialists to identify the artist’s original work and shed light on the authorship and date of later additions.

Unidentified sculptor from Abruzzo (?)
Madonna and Child
c. 1350-1400, polychrome wood sculpture
176 cm
Palazzo Cini Gallery

Galleria di Palazzo Cini: Homepage

Bacchi, Andrea and Andrea De Marchi, eds. La Galleria di Palazzo Cini. Dipinti, sculture, oggetti d’arte. Venice: Marsilio, 2016

Paone, Stefania. “Tabernacoli dipinti e scultura lignea in Abruzzo. Il Maestro di Fossa e il Maestro del Crocifisso d’Argento.” Studi Medievali e Moderni, 15, 29-30 (2011): 45-68. Link to the article

Zeri, Federico. Confesso che ho sbagliato. Ricordi autobiografici. Milan: Tea, 1995

Zeri, Federico, Mauro Natale and Alessandra Mottola Molfino, eds. Dipinti toscani e oggetti d’arte dalla collezione Vittorio Cini. Vicenza: Neri Pozza Editore, 1984