Madonna with Child with shelf and corbel with praying angel Detail of

This Madonna and Child was part of a famous collection
of sculptures collected by the Cusani marquises in their villa in Desio at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. The villa then passed to the Tittoni
family who in 1950 donated various sculptures to the Castle’s collections.
Today it is exhibited in Hall 12 of the Museum, the Ducal Chapel, set on a
small corbel decorated with the classical motif of cherubs holding festoons. The sculpture is still
linked to late Gothic influences and to the motifs that characterised the
statuary of Milan Cathedral in the first half of the fifteenth century, such as
the large draperies concealing the figure of the Madonna. An opening to Renaissance
themes can be seen instead in the supporting shelf. The coexistence of these
two characteristics in one single work led critics to recognise the hand of
sculptor Martino Benzoni, who first trained on the construction site of the
Cathedral and was then open to innovative Renaissance influences