Virgin and Child with Angels

Benozzo Gozzoli

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Benozzo Gozzoli. The drawing shows the figure of the Virgin Mary standing to the right of the composition with an ecclesiastical structure behind her. She is holding the child of Christ to the right and kneeling in front of her are two angels, facing forwards and turned slightly towards each other. The angels have wings and halos. To the left of the conposition are two more figures that are barely distinguishable. One of them faces forwards and appears to have a halo, while the other is looking and moving towards the right. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 1 BENOZZO GOZZOLI (b. 1420; d. after 1497) (A) VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS (B) VARIOUS STUDIES Collection of Captain E. G. Spencer Churchill, Northwick Park. From the Richardson Collection. (A), Black chalk and pen and bistre on pink prepared ground: (B), pen heighlighted with white on pink prepared ground. 16.9 x 17.9 cm. (6 5/8 x 7 in.). These two drawings are on opposite sides of the same sheet and bear an old but quite groundless attribution to to Giovanni Francesco Rustici. Both are unmistakably the work of Benozzo Gozzoli, though possibly of different periods. The design of (A) is singular, showing the Virgin erect on a pedestal holding the Child in her arms under a cusped Gothic canopy, with angels standing on the floor in front, one of them grasping one of the columns of the canopy. The studies on (B) are of a different technique and partly of a finer quality, especially in the figure standing in profile to the left and in those of the two exquisite kneeling angels (as yet without indication of the wings towards the right. The four figures are evidently first studies from the life for two of the standing and two of the kneeling angels in the famous Adoration fresco in the RIccardi Chapel at Florence. S. C."