The work is an imposing marble tondo measuring 105 cm in diameter depicting the Madonna with Child and St. John the Baptist di Benedict of Maiano, a work so far completely unpublished and the subject of a careful attribution study by Francesco Caglioti in the essay “A sketched tondo of Our Lady”, by Benedetto da Maiano published in the magazine Prospective number 167-168.
Found inside a villa in the ancient Florentine countryside, the tondo is one of Benedetto da Maiano's last works in the sphere of private commissions, left unfinished following the artist's death in 1497 and completed by an anonymous hand in the thirties of the sixteenth century. According to Caglioti this is a fundamental work in the knowledge of the work of one of the great sculptors of the Florentine Renaissance, "unsurpassed master builder of Florentine sculpture of the last quarter of the fifteenth century, and forerunner for all the best exponents of the Modern Manner in his own field , including Michelangelo”.
In his essay Caglioti writes: "The 'Madonna" is a high relief of extraordinary dimensions for its round format and for being carved in a single block of Carrara marble (…) the work, in excellent condition, also shows rich traces of the ancient gilding, which serve to bring out some of the most sought-after details of the composition: the halos of the three sacred figures, the cross of the little Baptist, the neckline of the robe and the edges of the sleeves of the Virgin, as well as the inner circle that welcomes the sacred group; in the frame all around, which simulates a celestial glory of eight seraphim among many six-pointed stars, the angelic wings and the stars themselves are also gilded.
The Virgin, represented in a three-quarter half-figure, traditionally wears a shirt, a dress and a cloak that veils her head, and is turned towards the left of the spectator, adapting to the circle with a cut and an attitude that deftly refer to the Giotto's Mayan cenotaph in Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. The Child is full-length, is wrapped in a drape that protects only his tummy and legs, and is comfortably seated three-quarters to the right on a cushion with tassels hanging at the corners, precious and soft like those seen in the " Madonna” Liechtenstein-Kress of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, in that of the arch-altar of Santa Fina in the Collegiate Church of San Gimignano, in that of the arch-altar of San Bartolo in Sant'Agostino of the same city, or in that from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Blumenthal Collection.
If the mother is wholly concentrated in praying to her son, he in turn shows himself intent on staring at the spectator while he holds a little sacred book erect on his left leg, leafing through a page: and the way in which the left wrist rests on the upper edge of the small tome to block it delicately is the same one sported by the 'Delphic Sibyl' in her oculus at the top right of the Correale altar in Naples. Behind the Redeemer's shoulders, the young Baptist emerges in half-relief and half-length, dressed in the usual camel or sheep's tunic, while, also in three-quarter view to the observer's right, he holds in his right hand a fluttering anepigraph scroll and with the left a tall and light processional cross, whose four polylobed arms are taken from the liturgical goldsmith's art of the time: a formal choice, this, whose translation in marble was constantly dear to Benedetto da Maiano, as evidenced by the two personifications of the 'Fede' in the Mellini pulpit in Santa Croce in Florence and in the ark of San Bartolo, the San Giovannino in the 'Madonna' of Monte dei Paschi in Siena and the Child in the 'Madonna' of the Arciconfraternita della Misericordia in Florence. (…)” .
