Virgin and Child Enthroned between Saint Dominic and a Papal Saint (formerly attributed to Domenico di Michelino)

Benozzo Gozzoli trained under Fra Angelico and Lorenzo Ghiberti before establishing his own workshop in Florence and later in Pisa, where he produced his most ambitious project — the fresco cycle of Old Testament scenes in the Camposanto. This Virgin and Child enthroned between Dominican and papal saints participates in the sacra conversazione format that was the dominant altarpiece type of the Florentine fifteenth century, reflecting Gozzoli's deep formation in the Dominican artistic tradition centered on San Marco. The earlier attribution to Domenico di Michelino reflects the stylistic overlap between painters working in the Angelico tradition.

Gozzoli's tempera technique on panel deploys Fra Angelico's legacy of clear, saturated color — the Virgin's blue mantle, the saints' robes — against a gold ground that preserves the iconic flatness of the devotional tradition even as his figure modeling becomes more three-dimensional under Renaissance influence.