Virgin and Child with Two Angels and Saints Peter, Paul, John the Baptist, and James Major
Artist
Giovanni del Biondo
(Italian, active 1356, died 1399)
Datelate 1380s
MediumTempera and gold on wood
DimensionsFramed: 55 13/16 H x 33 3/8 W x 5 1/8 D in. (141.7 x 84.7 x 13 cm)
Unframed support: 43 1/8 H x 29 5/16 W x 1 3/8 D in. (109.5 x 74.5 x 3.5 cm)
Unframed support: 43 1/8 H x 29 5/16 W x 1 3/8 D in. (109.5 x 74.5 x 3.5 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN6.a
In this opulent panel, the Virgin and the infant Christ commune with the saints in a sacra conversazione, or sacred conversation. Lavish quantities of gold, intricate punching and tooling used to articulate haloes and garments, and details like the saints' attributes create an overall effect of sumptuous complexity. These features celebrate the pictured holy figures, in whose honor the panel was painted. They also contribute to the impression of heaven as a distant, otherworldly, and unattainable realm, typical of paintings made in fourteenth-century Italy. Indeed, the tender interaction between the Virgin and her Child is perhaps the only recognizably human element. This panel originally stood at the center of a larger altarpiece structure.
On View
On viewLocation
- Museum of Art, Gallery 04
Domenico Ghirlandaio and Workshop
c. 1500
Marcantonio Raimondi
16th Century
