Donatello's Black Madonna

The composition and form of Donatello’s bronze Madonna and Child for the high altar of II Santo in Padua has always been somewhat puzzling to students of the master’s art (Figures i and 2). It seems to represent an anomaly in which Donatello, who nearly unaided introduced into the language of forms in fifteenth-Century Italy a new interpretation of the human figure, thoroughly and uncompromisingly rejects his own discoveries. Placing the onus of the Madonna’s invention and execution onto one of the host of shop-workers known to have been active in the master’s Padovan bottega cannot be supported on stylistic grounds. Furthermore an assistant or assistants could hardly have produced such an apparently retardataire group, and would have clung instead to the most current ideas of the master at that moment. In any case the beauty and refinement of the modelling, the absolute control over the medium, the intricate iconography woven into the work, all together make it impossible to doubt that we are dealing with a statue conceived of and in large measure executed by the master himself. One might even sustain that it represents one of the finest productions of his Paduan period. To be sure, the Madonna and Child forms the central focus for the entire altar, large and complex as it was, regardless of which reconstruction from the nearly a score one chooses to accept. In this circumstance it is scarcely possible that Donatello would have turned over such a key statue to an assistant. Horst W. Janson’s explanation of the statue, together with his analysis, is the most fruitful yet entertained. He with good reason suggested that Donatello must have been requested to conform his Ma­ donna and Child with an older Madonna image owned by the Church.1 Janson further postulated that this older image may even have been attached to the original altar for which Donatello’s monumental bronze altar was a replacement. Scholars have long observed that Donatello’s group reflected a much earlier type, one current in the years shortly after the first millenium and one that persisted as a vital motive well into the Dugento. Hans Kauffmann associated it with the relief and painted Madonna and Child in S. Maria Maggiore in Florence attributed to Coppo di Marcovaldo, but Janson has demonstrated that such a reflection on a Florentine work for one executed in Padua is unlikely. Unfortunately the known documentation relative to Donatello’s activities on the altar gives no Infor­ mation whatever as to any special contractual instructions for the statue, although there must have been some either written or oral, if Janson’s explanation is correct.2 3On the other hand, there does exist in the literature a highly suggestive notice that may serve to clarify the matter. Santori published a notice (only partially transcribed) and together with his summary it reads as follows: 1402, 10 Dicembre... P. M. Gaspare de Mantova, Ministro della Provincia del Santo, decreta che il. superflno delle Offerte fatte alla Ma­ donna Mora venga devoluto a rinnovare Valtare maggiore: Capsa remaneat in statu pristino, ita quod oblacio deveniat pro aptando altare magnum conventus et anchonam unamJ The Chapel of the Madonna Mora referred to in the document is still extant and is still known by that name. It lies on the left flank of the church and forms what might be called the left transept. The chapel is the most ancient part of the church; for it should be recalled, II Santo was constructed on part of the site of an earlier church called Santa Maria Mater Domini or Sancta Dei Genetrix which was said to have been founded in the year noo.4 At the time of Anthony’s death in 1231, this church was being used by the Saint and his followers and his body was placed to rest in a marble arca within it.5 Saint Anthony’s remains were kept in the old church and presumably in the Chapel of the Madonna Mora until Saint Buonaventura transferred them to the newly built church dedicated to Saint Anthony (II Santo) at which time it was discovered that the tongue of the famous thaumaturge was miraculously still intact (April,