Madonna of the Quail

In this work, which probably formed the central part of a small polyptych of domestic devotion, Pisanello is able to render the features of flora and fauna with the delicacy of a miniaturist and the knowledge of a naturalist: leaves, flowers, birds, including the quail present in the foreground. Pisanello was the son of a Pisan merchant and a Veronese mother, and he became one of the major protagonists of 15th century Italian art, admired by princes, celebrated by poets, contested by the most important courts of the peninsula. He trained in Verona and left in the city some of the greatest masterpieces of Gothic painting, like the Annunciation in San Fermo and Saint George and the Princess in Santa Anastasia.