Old Master Paintings on 8th part1| The Madonna and Child

Paolo di Stefano Badaloni, called Paolo Schiavo

(Florence 1397–1478 Pisa)

The Madonna and Child,

tempera and oil on panel, 43.5 x 29.5 cm, framed

Paolo di Stefano Badaloni, called Paolo Schiavo, most likely prepared in the workshop of Lorenzo Monaco in Florence. His apprenticeship under Monaco established the framework for Schiavo's different advantages: the craftsman was a fresco and board painter, yet additionally a much sought-after planner and expert of cassoni and book brightening. He joined the Florentine organization of painters, the Arte dei Medici e Speziali, in 1429. Along with Masolino, who was to affect his future work, he executed the praised frescoes in the Collegiata of Castiglione Olona in Lombardy towards the last part of the 1430s. Among his most noticeable results are the Madonna and Child with Saints in San Miniato al Monte in Florence from 1436 and the design of the Oratorio della Madonna della Querce from 1460. Schiavo, therefore, moved to Pisa, where he passed on in 1478. 

The focal point of the current artistic creation is on the tender connection between the Madonna and the Child. Motivated by Donatello's Madonna Pazzi, which affected Florentine painters of the second quarter of the fifteenth century to make more personal portrayals of the subject, the Child accepts the Madonna, as though going to offer a kiss. The gold managed red fabric of honour, which opens to the outside past, highlights the gathering while at the same time affirming that Paolo Schiavo was solidly established in the Florentine practice. The current composition dates to around 1440–45 and can measure up to the Madonna and Child with Four Saints in Santa Croce, Florence (see M. Boskovits, Ancora su Paolo Schiavo, in Arte Cristiana, N.S. 83, 1995, pp. 335, 337, fig. 6).

Sienese School, early 15th Century

A triptych: central panel: The Madonna Lactans enthroned, flanked by Saint Christopher and Saint Philip with the Crucifixion above; left wing: Saint Catherine of Alexandria (?) and the Angel of the Annunciation above; right wing: A Bishop-Saint and the Virgin Annunciate above,
tempera on gold ground panel, shaped top, 58 x 50 cm (overall open), 56.8 x 12.2 cm (left wing), 58 x 24.7 cm (central panel), 56.2 x 12.2 cm (right wing)

The current artistic creation is enrolled in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 6416 (as Master of the Cologne Triptych). 

The Sienese beginning of the current work of art is recommended by the exquisite and dignified portrayal of the figures with wide oval appearances and almond-molded eyes. Likewise common of Sienese painting of the period is the sgraffito enrichment on the gold of the robes and the fabric of honor. 

This work is among the gathering of works amassed by Federico Zeri under the moniker the 'Expert of the Cologne Triptych'. In any case, additionally remembered for the gathering is the Madonna and Child with Saints and the Pietà, earlier in the Wilson assortment in Glencoe, Missouri (see Fototeca Zeri, no. 6415) which has now been given to the inventory of the Sienese painters Cristoforo di Bindoccio and Meo di Pero by Serena Padovani (see S. Padovani, Sulla traccia di Cristoforo di Bindoccio e Meo di Pero, in: Bollettino d'arte, 77, 1982, pp. 85-98; S. Padovani, Un aggiornamento del catalogo di Cristoforo di Bindoccio e Meo di Pero, in: K. Bergdolt, G. Bonsanti (eds.), Opere e giorni: studi su mille anni di arte europea dedicati a Max Seidel, Venice 2001, pp. 223-230). 

The current artwork, which can be dated between the finish of the fourteenth and the start of the fifteenth century, can likewise measure up to works by Cristoforo di Bindoccio and Meo di Pero, like the three-panel painting in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt (inv. no. 996) in which comparable decorative themes are intermittent (see fig. 1).

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