Da Firenze fino ad Alghero: una fortunata "Madonna col Bambino e angeli" del giovane Niccolò Baroncelli

This paper aims to explore the success and diffusion of a specific iconographic model of the Madonna and Child with Angels, based on a sculptural prototype known in multiple versions, the most famous of which is housed at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. This model has been identified as the source for a painting by the Master of Pratovecchio, now in the Morgan Library, New York, but it rep-resents only the tip of a much larger phenomenon. The study presents a range of related works pre-served across Italy, from Florence and its surroundings to Emilia, Campania, and Sardinia. It also pro-poses a connection with a second group of “serial” tabernacles made for private devotion. Through stylistic comparisons and visual analysis, the paper suggests attributing these two serial compositions to the early career of Niccolò Baroncelli, a pupil of Donatello. After an initial training in Florence, Baroncelli moved to northern Italy where he found his success. While this phase is well documented through surviving works and archival records, his early years remain largely obscure. Attributing these works to his early period marks a first step toward clarifying this lesser-known phase of his artistic de-velopment