Dan Hicks, a curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum and author of a book on the Benin Bronzes, posted on Twitter: “When the Royal Academy sells the Taddei Tondo to save 150 jobs, it will be another urgent reminder that museums aren’t bank vaults, mausoleums or endpoints – but public spaces, unfinished gestures and live projects. It is in the permanent collection of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, it is the only marble sculpture by Michelangelo in Great Britain. The main evidence for Leonardo’s effect on the younger artist is the ‘Taddei Tondo’. The Royal Academy of Arts has been considering selling Michelangelo’s marble sculpture Taddei Tondo. The Royal Academy in London is reportedly weighing the costs and benefits of the potential sale of Michelangelo’s marble Taddei Tondo, which is part of its collection. [18] With its differing degrees of finish the tondo is an outstanding technical study piece; plaster casts may be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Fitzwilliam Museum. We, here at Tudor Coins, buy only quality circulated and uncirculated coins and currency that we pass on to you knowing that the article is genuine. If it were to do so, there would be two main options — a private sale or a public auction. [1] Shortly after its arrival at the Royal Academy, the tondo was sketched by Constable, who published a letter in the Athenaeum of 3 July 1830 praising the way it was lit, "showing the more finished parts to advantage, and causing those less perfect to become masses of shadow, having at a distance all the effect of a rich picture in chiaroscuro". Since the opening of the Sackler Wing of Galleries in 1991, the tondo has been on free public display in a purpose-built area on the top floor, positioned for reasons of preventive conservation behind protective glass, to combat the effects of air pollution and the possibility of vandalism. “Taddei Tondo” is its nickname, it is properly titled “The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John.” This piece was made for the Florentine wool merchant Taddeo Taddei around 1504-05, which is where “Taddei” comes from. 1504-05", "Michelangelo's Great Tondo: Its Origins and Setting", "The Jillian and Arthur M. Sackler Wing of Galleries", "Sketch of Michelangelo's Taddei tondo, c. New York art dealer Helly Nahmad pardoned by Trump, Seesaw installation at US-Mexico border wins Design of the Year award, Police discovers stolen Salvator Mundi in Naples apartment, Singer RM from Korean boyband BTS named 'art sponsor of the year', A lost Van Gogh self-portrait had the most extraordinary frame that included his much-loved sunflowers—here it is reconstructed. It was commissioned by the wealthy cloth merchant Taddeo Taddei and made between 1504 and 1505. By the following year, the Michelangelo valuation had been increased to £6m. [2] John, patron saint of Florence, with his attribute of a baptismal bowl, crosses his arms, perhaps in allusion to the cross. The Michelangelo has still never been lent abroad, and probably never will be for conservation reasons, since there is a hairline crack on the reverse. It assumes by degrees its shape, features from an unformed mass, as it were you trace & watch its birth from the sculptor's mind". The Taddei Tondo was given to the London gallery in 1829 to inspire the academy's schools after the death of owner Lady Margaret Beaumont and is the only marble sculpture by the Italian artist Michelangelo in the United Kingdom. The tondo is of course the only example of Micheangelo's sculptures in Britain. According to Vasari, while working on his David, "also at this time he blocked out but did not finish two marble tondi, one for Taddeo Taddei, today in his house, and for Bartolomeo Pitti he began another... which works were considered outstanding and marvellous". Michelangelo's "Taddei Tondo" (tondo means round) is a large circular marble relief of the Madonna and Child with the infant St. John the Baptist. Safe list so it is a circular relief wealthy cloth merchant Taddeo Taddei and made between and! 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