Terracotta Virgin and Child. Mary is seated, carrying... Lot 42

Terracotta Virgin and Child. Mary is seated, carrying the naked Child lying on her lap, who is clutching a bird in her right hand. Her youthful face, with fine features, is surrounded by a veil with knotted ends; she is dressed in a gown belted below the chest and a mantle with panels that return to the front of the knees, forming harmonious, deep, broken folds. Florence, attributed to Leonardo del Tasso (Florence, 1472 - 1501), circa 1490/95 H. 33 cm (minor damage to the terrace and to the bird's head) Provenance : - Former collection of Dr. Otto Lanz (1865, 1935), Amsterdam [This sculpture did indeed come up for sale in 2021, with polychromy, and bearing the label of the Otto Lanz collection]. Works consulted: - J. Warren, Sculptures in Stone, Clay, Ivory, Bone and Wood, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, T II, 2014, cat. 120 and 121. - A. Bellandi, Leonardo del Tasso, Scultore fiorentino del rinascimento, ed. Mizen Fine Art Edizioni, 2016 This polychrome terracotta Madonna is inspired by the Florentine Benedetto da Maiano, whose gentle Virgins feature young girls with slit eyes and sharp chins. As Maiano's nephew, Leonardo del Tasso inherited these qualities, adding a more familiar and human touch, as shown by several of his terracotta Madonnas, particularly the two in the Bardini Museum collections (fig. a and b). On the death of his uncle in 1497, the young Leonardo took over his workshop and joined the Guild of Master Sculptors of Stone and Wood. Sadly, his premature death in 1501, at less than thirty years of age, prevented him from continuing the evolution of his style, the fruit of a family legacy. A renowned Swiss surgeon, Otto Lanz is known for having amassed an important collection of paintings and objets d'art, mainly from the Italian Renaissance, during the first part of his life. He ended his career as a professor of surgery in Amsterdam, where he died in 1935. He had previously sought to sell his collection to the Rijksmuseum, which had been exhibiting a number of his objects since 1906. He also loaned 122 of his paintings for an exhibition at the city's Stedelijk Museum, from June to October 1934. During the war, his heirs were forced to sell the collection to Hitler, who acquired it for his Führermuseum project in Linz, after long and complex negotiations, for 2 million Swiss francs and 350,000 guilders. After the capitulation, the collection reverted to the Dutch state. Many of the works were returned to the Rijksmuseum, others were dispersed to various museums, and a number, considered of lesser importance at the time, were sold at auction, including, most probably, this lovely late Quattrocento Madonna. Professor Bellandi has confirmed the attribution of this sculpture to Leonardo del Tasso.