Diego De Siloe (after), Madonna and Child

Rectangular bronze plaque with dark brown patina; 220 x 145 mm. This beautiful high relief plaque is inspired by an invention, replicated several times in various materials, by the sculptor Diego De Siloe. An alabaster original is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and various replicas in other museums. The Spanish sculptor was influenced by the Madonnas of the Florentine Renaissance, which he had the opportunity to study during a trip to Italy. Our plaque should be compared with the one preserved at the Lia Museum, La Spezia, catalogued by Charles Avery. The subject is identical, but I would say much simplified compared to ours: the cloak of our Madonna is worked in stripes with inserts of stars while the other is smooth. The two figures in our high relief are leaning on a curtain and have worked halos, in the other they do not. From the original model of Siloam, many replicas were made for devotional use, often inserted in wooden frames. For ours we conform to the Lia Museum cataloguing.