Benedetto da Maiano: due proposte per il catalogo delle terrecotte

Benedetto da Maiano: two proposals for the catalogue of terracottas. An intense and expressive image of ‘Mary Magdalene’, today in the deposits of the Fondazione Federico Cerruti per l’Arte (Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin), may be included in the illustrious iconographical tradition of the Florentine ‘Mary Magdalenes’ of the Quattrocento. The authorship and provenance of this considerable sculpture, modelled in terracotta and painted, were unknown. The present study retraces the complex sequence of events relating to the work, associating it on stylistic grounds with the later activity of the Florentine sculptor Benedetto da Maiano (Maiano 1441 - Florence 1497), and recomposing the vicissitudes relating to its provenance, now identifiable thanks to documents in the complex of Santa Elisabetta “delle Convertite” in Florence, whose coenobium was used as a shelter for repentant prostitutes up until the early 19th century. The article also proposes to assign another famous work to the catalogue of terracottas by Benedetto da Maiano, the bust of ‘Saint Antonino Pierozzi’ today in the right transept of the basilica of Santa Maria Novella, one of the most important portraits of the archbishop of Florence whose authorship has for long remained uncertain.