the winged head framed by crossed cornucopia and surrounded by delicately scrolling vines and ribbons, the top and bottom with molded borders, within later giltwood frame. 

Arthur Sambon, Paris
Carlo de Carlo, sold Semeinzato, Flo🅠rence, part II, April 2001, lot 104

Collection Arthur Sambon, Catalogue des Objects D'Art et de Haute Curiosité, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 25-28 May 1914, lot 404, illus.
I. Cardellini, Desiderio da Settignano, Milan, 1962, pp. 252-256 (illus fig. 316).
A. Markham, Review of Desiderio da Settgnano by I. Cardellini, in Art Bulletin, LXVI, 2, 1964, p. 246.
U. Middeldorf, Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, European Schools XIV-XIX Century, London, 1976, pp.16-19.
A. Victor Coonin, "Desiderio da Settignano", Masterpieces of Renaissance Art. Eight Rediscoveries, exhib. cat.,  November 29, 2001- February 2, 2002, Salander O'Reilly Galleries, New York, pp.10-17.

In his brief career, Desiderio da Settignano (1429-32/1464) produced some of the most delicate and beautiful sculpture in mid-15th century Florence. The son of a stone-carver, Desiderio probably worked with Donatello early in his career, evident in his technique and the sophistication of his relievo schiacciato. Attributions to him are based on two documented commissions, the tomb of Carlo Marsuppini in S. Croce and the tabernacle of the sacrament in S. Lorenzo, both in Florence. The Marsuppini tomb, with angels bearing garlands, with faces see🅘mingly imbued with life, the sarcophagus with wandering leafy tendrils and fluttering ribbons and the ribbon and garland base, all embody Desiderio’s obsession with decorative detail and his ability to create exuberant, living forms out of marble.

The present relief of a cherub clearly echoes these characteristics in the decorative elements and the transient expression of the face. The feathered wings and fluttering ribbons here are comparable to those on the tomb as is the treatment of the cherub’s tousled hair, parted lips, outlined eyes and fleshy face, seen in the Child in the roundel incorporating the Madonna and Child (fig.1). The face can also be compared with that of the figure to the right of the S. Lorenzo tabernacle’s Pieta relief and🥃 to the putt⛎i within the tabernacle’s lunette (fig. 2).

As Coonin notes (op.cit., p.17), it has been suggested that the present relief is associated with the celebrated tabernacle that Desiderio executed for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence (the church was destroyed and the tabernacle dismantled in 1784). The tabernacle has been described in detail as having multiple reliefs of putti adorning its base. However, the sculptor created many documented decorative ensembles, now lost, including the base for Donatello’s bronze David for the courtyard of the Palazzo Medici, two water basins and one chimneypiece commissioned through the art dealer Bartolomꦿeo Serragli and two winജdows above the loggia of a home owned by the Ghiberti family.