Abstract

This article highlights two unpublished statues of Madonna with Child, initially half busted, which are kept in Cammarata (Agrigento, Sicily). The two stucco statues have been created by using the mould technique, which allowed to create several reproductions of the same subject. Their fortunate creation has been made by the famous studios of Florence at the beginning of 1400 and the statues then rapidly spread in a marketplace which went well beyond Tuscany. The two Madonnas, albeit damaged by tampering and repainting, show undeniable stylistic analogies with a mould technique traditionally attributed to Lorenzo Ghiberti or his school. The two handworks probably arrived in Sicily thanks to the intensive cultural and commercial exchanges during the XV century, when Cammarata culturally flourished thanks to the Abatellis, the local counts and bankers, who kept close ties to Tuscany.