Madonna of the Milk
Ginori Manufacture
The relief depicts the Virgin caught in the intimate gesture of a mother nursing her child with her own milk. The subject represented and the size of the piece suggest a use for private devotion.
The type of paste links the execution of this piece to around the mid-eighteenth century, while the refined modelling suggests a skilled workshop, probably identifiable with the chief modeller Gaspero Bruschi. However, comparison with the wax cast of a similar subject, preserved in the Ginori Museum (inv. 209), reveals the presence of variations, the most evident of which is the omission of the angels’ heads. This leads to the hypothesis that the model arrived at Doccia from an as yet unidentified bronzesculptor’s workshop and was partially modified during its adaptation into porcelain. It is known that Marquis Carlo Ginori purchased, for "factory use," plaster and terracotta sculptures, as well as plaster mould sections, directly from the workshops of late Baroque Florentine sculptors or derived from them in terms of design.
The model of our piece shows a wax coloration that, with few exceptions, characterizes the entire group of wax casts preserved in the Ginori Museum. Therefore, we can consider that this too was made by sculptors active at the manufactory, such as Vincenzo Foggini, Giovan Battista Vannetti, and Anton Filippo Maria Weber.
Despite the shrinkage of the porcelain, the enlarged dimensions in the relief compared to the source model are justified by the expansion of the unmodelled surface.
The design of the rocks, which defines the shapeless mass upon which the Virgin sits in the wax version, is to be considered an invention of the modeller, consistent with other compositions executed at Doccia.
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The relief depicts the Virgin caught in the intimate gesture of a mother nursing her child with her own milk. The subject represented and the size of the piece suggest a use for private devotion.
The type of paste links the execution of this piece to around the mid-eighteenth century, while the refined modelling suggests a skilled workshop, probably identifiable with the chief modeller Gaspero Bruschi. However, comparison with the wax cast of a similar subject, preserved in the Ginori Museum (inv. 209), reveals the presence of variations, the most evident of which is the omission of the angels’ heads. This leads to the hypothesis that the model arrived at Doccia from an as yet unidentified bronzesculptor’s workshop and was partially modified during its adaptation into porcelain. It is known that Marquis Carlo Ginori purchased, for "factory use," plaster and terracotta sculptures, as well as plaster mould sections, directly from the workshops of late Baroque Florentine sculptors or derived from them in terms of design.
The model of our piece shows a wax coloration that, with few exceptions, characterizes the entire group of wax casts preserved in the Ginori Museum. Therefore, we can consider that this too was made by sculptors active at the manufactory, such as Vincenzo Foggini, Giovan Battista Vannetti, and Anton Filippo Maria Weber.
Despite the shrinkage of the porcelain, the enlarged dimensions in the relief compared to the source model are justified by the expansion of the unmodelled surface.
The design of the rocks, which defines the shapeless mass upon which the Virgin sits in the wax version, is to be considered an invention of the modeller, consistent with other compositions executed at Doccia.
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