Madonna and child

Manifattura Figli di Giuseppe Cantagalli, Florence, Italy, 1889

White tin-glazed and painted maiolica, light body.

84 × 56 cm (97 × 82 cm with frame)

UMP 11813

Purchased at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889.

This relief image of Madonna and the Christ Child against a blue background in a relief frame of fruit, executed using the Italian maiolica technique and modelled on a Renaissance-era work by the Florentine sculptor Andrea della Robbia, was produced by Manifattura Figli di Giuseppe Cantagalli in Florence. Copies of Italian Renaissance works were shown at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris, where the factory received the gold medal for its maiolica products. That November, Josef Škorpil purchased a selection of products directly from Figli di Giuseppe Cantagalli in Paris for the West Bohemian Museum of Decorative Arts in Pilsen. (lmp)