The Madonna and Child with Saints

Buglioni was not a pupil of the Della Robbia. Instead he was the head of another, independent workshop producing a similar class of works in glazed terracotta; these are now widely distributed throughout Tuscany. The Kansas City altarpiece represents the Virgin Mary enthroned as Queen of Heaven, a crown held above her head by two angels. She is also Maria lactans, the nursing mother who offers her breast to the Infant Christ, and the focus of a Sacra Conversazione: a composition of the Madonna flanked by saints (in this case Francis of Assisi, Lawrence, Anthony Abbot, and Sebastian). The border is composed of two great swags of fruit, vegetables, and flowers including gourds and pomegranates, symbols of Christ's sacrifice, salvation and resurrection. Frogs, too, make reference to the belief that Christ rose from the dead because classical authors suggested that frogs died in the winter and were born again in the spring. Of several works to which the Kansas City altarpiece may be compared, the Bottigli Madonna (Museo dell'Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence), a dated work of 1520, is of special relevance because the two are stylistically identical.