Madonna and Child

Leonardo del Tasso e bottega (attributed to)
polychrome terracotta
late 15th – early 16th century

The San Severo fresco, and especially the lower portion, echoes the iconographical theme of the Sacra Conversazione wherein Madonna con il Bambino (Madonna and Child) are portrayed enthroned and surrounded by saints but in this case (in Perugia) the saints are sculpted rather than painted. The polychrome terracotta sculptures are presumed to have been made by Leonardo del Tasso, descendant of a Tuscan family of sculptors, woodcutters and architects who were particularly prolific in Central Italy between the 15th and 16th centuries. Leonardo del Tasso himself also collaborated with the sculptor Benedetto da Maiano from whom he inherited his studio in 1497.

This Madonna con il Bambino is firmly located in the delicate, artistic tradition of gently sculpted mothers, begun by Donatello and passed on through Desiderio da Settignanoto the brothers Rossellino, then Benedetto da Maiano and finally Leonardo del Tasso. From 1490 to 1491 Leonardo’s relative Domenico del Tasso, a woodcutter, was also on a creative streak in Perugia where he created the wooden choir for the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo and the wooden furnishings for the Sala delle Udienze of the Nobile Collegio del Cambio.