Pair of Italian porcelain plaques with Renaissance-style Madonnas

Mounted in beautiful giltwood frames, and dating to the beginning of the 20th century, these wonderful painted porcelain plaques depict two images of the Madonna and Child after iconic masterpieces by Italian Renaissance artists.

United by the rich red drapery of the Virgin and the undulating folds in ultramarine that wrap around her, the two works show, firstly, Raphaels' Madonna del Cartollino, or Madonna with a goldfinch - an immensely important work of 1506 by the high Renaissance artist par excellence that hangs in the Uffizi, Florence - while the second shows a more distilled composition of the same subject, taken in all likelihood from Michelangelo's Pitti Tondo, a similarly important work by the world renowned artist on sculptor, which is on display in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, also in Florence.

Rendering the originals with appropriate charm and a high degree of artistic quality, these beautiful pieces, soothing, peaceful, and wonderfully executed, imbue their porcelain with a delightful artistic as well as decorative property, making them wondeful additions to the interior of a lover of antique art or Old Master paintings. They are variously inscribed and labelled to the reverse, also indicating the original pieces.

Frames: height 28cm, width 23cm, depth 2cm
Plaques: height 18cm, width 13cm, depth 0.5cm