The Virgin sits on a grand throne with the Christ Child standing on her lap in this small devotional panel from the fourteenth-century workshop of Bernardo Daddi. While the hand of a specific artist cannot be identified, this image is a variant of a popular type that was produced in the Florentine master’s workshop (a close comparison is the Madonna and Child with Four Saints in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples). It is likely that this panel was part of a diptych or triptych that would have also featured images of saints, angels, or other devotional scenes, such as the Crucifixion. Its small size would have allowed the owner to transport it with relative ease.
The Madonna and Child Enthroned was a common subject for devotional objects in the fourteenth century. This example features an exchange of tender gestures – the Virgin pulls the Christ Child toward her by clutching the fabric of his garment. He reaches up to caress her cheek. Their eye contact and sweet expressions suggest an intimate, familial relationship. The expansive throne is draped with cloth that is painted to resemble embroidered silk textile and evoke the splendor of the heavenly realm. Ornamented with finials, the gable recalls church architecture of the period.
Credit: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975