Madonna of Humility Enthroned by Angels

Gherardo Starninaaround 1404 - 1405

Details

Title: Madonna of Humility Enthroned by Angels
Creator Lifespan: documented 1387 - 1412
Creator Nationality: Italian
Creator Gender: Male
Creator Death Place: Florence
Creator Birth Place: Florence
Date: around 1404 - 1405
Provenance: Alberto Crespi Collection
Physical Dimensions: w62.9 x h117.2 cm (with frame)
Painter: Gherardo di Jacopo detto lo Starnina
Description: This painting, destined to adorn a pilaster of a church or the altar of a small noble chapel, shows the Virgin and Child, one of the most popular subjects of the middle of the fourteenth century. The painting displays the usual iconography of the Madonna of Humility, with the Virgin seated on the ground; however, the painter has added the representation of two angels in flight, in the act of placing a crown on the head of the Mother. This variant had limited dissemination and Simone Martini was the author of its most illustrious precedent. The Child, who is grabbing his mother’s veil and sucking his finger, gives the image a tone of domestic intimacy and intensifies its symbolic dimension. The chronology of the painting is problematic, with recent research placing it in the middle of the first decade of the fifteenth century.
Type: painting
Rights: © Archivio fotografico Museo Diocesano, Milano
Medium: tempera on wood

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