Surrounded by the vaguely classical frame of the throne, the Virgin appears regal and yet also tender and human in the gestures that bind her to the Child, in the flush of her cheeks, and in the babyish, gently converging faces of the angels.
Spanzotti’s work takes from the stained glass window made in 1467 by Giacomo and Domenico Cabrini, to a design by Francesco del Cossa, for the church of San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna, and it shows the painter’s early studies and how he nevertheless kept up with the changing styles.
This is one of the finest examples of Piedmontese Renaissance art, and true to the spirit of humanity that was to be taken up by Gaudenzio Ferrari.