Object Image

Madonna of Humility, called "Madonna of the Carriages"

The panel, recognized by critics as a work from Giovanni di Paolo’s fully mature phase, was until 1964 in the tabernacle on Via delle Terme – formerly called Via dell’Arte della Lana – above the door to the garage used by the coachmen of Siena, “vetturini” in Italian, thus its curious nickname, the Madonna dei Vetturini, Our Lady of the Coachmen. As testified by an inscription on the back of the panel, the work was placed in the tabernacle of the Arte della Lana, or woolworkers guild, in 1832 as a gift of the Mencherini family to the tabernacle of the Corporazione dei Linaioli (the linen-drapers association).

Now significantly damaged and cut down along the edges, the painting was originally t...

c. 1450
Tempera on wood
85.0 x 57.0cm
Images and text © Monte dei Paschi di Siena, 2017

Where you'll find this

Museo San Donato (MPSArt)
Permanent collection