Giovanni Merliano known as Giovanni da Nola (1488-1558) attributed
Virgin in glory
Polychrome and gilded wood sculpture
h cm 153
Details
Giovanni da Nola, with the young Geronimo Santacroce, were able to give life in the Neapolitan city to a local school of sculpture, oriented towards the Tuscan manner. This was due not only to the presence in the city, in the last years of the fifteenth century, of masters of the level of Antonio Rossellino and Benedetto da Maiano, but also to that brief but intense, of two Spanish artists, Bartolomeo Ordonez and Diego de Siloe, followers and interpreters of the Sansovino style.
Pictured standing on soft clouds, from which emerges the curly hair of a chubby cherub, the young praying Madonna brings her hands joined to her chest. The oval but full face, with rosy complexion, and framed by the long brown locks flowing down the shoulders, is characterized by small lips, straight nose and ecstatic eyes full of a vibrant passion. The long dress with a rounded neckline and tight at the waist by a ribbon, while the cloak, falling to the feet with a fine modeling, is richly decorated, on a gold background with leafy volutes, by concatenated rosettes.
The octagonal base has a molded profile.
