Virgin and Child with Angels

Spinello Aretino's Virgin and Child with Angels from 1405 is a late work by one of the most significant Tuscan painters of the late Trecento, whose career spanned from the immediate aftermath of the Black Death through the beginnings of the Early Renaissance transformation. Spinello worked in Arezzo, Florence, Siena, and Pisa, participating in major fresco cycles including the Camposanto in Pisa and the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. His style represents the late Gothic tradition at its most accomplished — the gold ground, the formal figure types, the decorative richness — while showing awareness of the spatial experiments being conducted by painters at the turn of the century. The Madonna and Child, with attending angels in the Byzantine-derived format, demonstrates the sustained vitality of the Trecento tradition even as Florentine painting was beginning the revolutionary transformation that would culminate in Masaccio's work.

The tempera and gold on wood panel demonstrates the late Trecento Tuscan technique with elegant, flowing drapery and refined gold tooling. The combination of solid figural modeling with decorative surface treatment shows the transition from Gothic to early Renaissance.