HistoryArt

Description:

This painting by an unknown artist active in Tuscany is today only a fragment of its original format. In its entirety, the Virgin Mary was depicted full-length and seated on a throne as the Queen of Heaven. She holds Christ in her arms, as he makes a blessing gesture with his right hand and holds a scroll in his left. The iconography and the very frontal, formal style derive from the traditions of Byzantine art.

In the early medieval period, Italian churches were traditionally decorated with vast mosaics and frescos covering the walls. With the rise of panel painting in the 13th century, however, images moved off the walls and onto the altars. The shape of this panel, with the head and halo of the Virgin protruding, was a local innovation popular in Florence in the second half of the 13th century.