Michelangelo Buonarroti
Madonna of the staircase
About 1490
marble, 56.7 x 40.1 cm
Buonarroti House, inv. 190

The Madonna della scala, of which no mention is known during Michelangelo's life, is mentioned for the first time in the Giuntina edition (1568) of Giorgio Vasari's Lives, where it is reported that the work had been donated "not many years ”from Leonardo Buonarroti, the artist's nephew, to Duke Cosimo I,“ who holds it for something very singular ”.

Before this gift, most likely the work had always remained in the artist's house in via Ghibellina, where it returned in 1616, when the Grand Duke Cosimo II returned it to Michelangelo the Younger, as a sign of recognition for the work of glorification of the great ancestor who was setting out in those years in the monumental rooms of the noble floor.

Vasari already notes the relationship between the Madonna della Scala and Donatello's style: “wanting to counterfeit Donatello's manner, he carried himself so well that it seems like he is, except that we see more grace and more design”. But Michelangelo's relationship with Donatello appears, already in this youthful work, personal, intense, undoubtedly breaking: a fascinating reinterpretation, but already controversial and farewell.

Despite its limited size, the work has a monumental breath, with the female figure occupying the entire height of the relief, from one edge to the other. The meaning of both the staircase that gives the relief its name and the action of the children remains ambiguous: two in a dance attitude and two who seem to stretch a cloth behind the Madonna.

The date of the relief, traditionally considered, since Vasari, the work of Michelangelo's adolescence, has been and is much discussed: however, a placement around 1490, before the Battle of the Centaurs, seems to be confirmed.

Thanks to the generous availability of the Friends of Florence Foundation, it was possible to start the restoration of the Madonna della scala, conducted by Daniela Manna (2021-2022).

Source: Museo Casa Buonarroti (Firenze)
https://www.casabuonarroti.it/museo/