Dossal: The Virgin and Child with Saints Matthew and Hilarion

This dossal altarpiece by Deodato Orlandi, a Lucchese painter active in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, depicts the Virgin and Child flanked by Saints Matthew and Hilarion. The dossal format — a horizontal altar frontal or retable — was one of the earliest forms of Italian panel painting, preceding the development of the polyptych altarpiece. Created around 1310, it reflects the painting traditions of Lucca and Pisa, which maintained strong connections to Byzantine art while absorbing the new Gothic naturalism from Florence.

Executed in egg tempera and gold on panel, the dossal uses the characteristic horizontal format with figures arranged in a row against a gold ground. Orlandi's style combines Byzantine-derived frontal poses and gold striations in drapery with the slightly softer modeling introduced by the proto-Gothic generation.