ABSTRACT
On August 27, 1456, the Florentine physician Giovanni Chellini noted in his ricordanze the receipt of a bronze roundel from Donatello in exchange for medical treatment he had given the 70-year-old sculptor (Figure 7). 1 Chellini described the work succinctly in the relevant entry: “Donatello … gave me a tondo as large as a serving tray, on which is sculpted the Virgin Mary with the [Christ] Child at her neck and two angels at each side, all in bronze.” 2 The relief (28 cm in diameter), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, depicts a crowned and nimbed Virgin Mary, holding the Christ child against her chest, along with the four angels—two to either side of the central group—behind a low barrier fence and within a round frame decorated on its front surface with imitation Kufic script. Originally, passages of the roundel’s obverse were highlighted with gilding, although much of it has been lost. The sensitively sculpted tondo reveals Donatello’s skill in manipulating wax to produce delicate details in cast bronze. Pencil-thin fabric folds of the Virgin’s headdress and cloak vibrate and ripple as they streak across her body and contrast with the smooth yet subtly modeled surfaces of her hand, neck, and face.
