Triptych with Madonna and Child with Saints

Bicci di Lorenzo was one of Florence's most commercially successful workshop operators in the first half of the fifteenth century, producing altarpieces at a pace that required systematized workshop production. This 1427 triptych follows the traditional format — Madonna enthroned in the central panel flanked by saints on the wings — that Florentine patrons had been commissioning for over a century. The year 1427 is notable: Florence was conducting its first catasto (tax census), and guild activity was brisk. Bicci ran a major shop on Via dei Servi and trained multiple assistants, making attribution of workshop hands a persistent scholarly problem.

The triptych format retains Gothic arched frames for the side panels while the central Madonna sits in a slightly more spacious, proto-Renaissance throne. Drapery is handled with competent but formulaic tonal modeling. The limited palette — crimson, blue, green — is typical of Bicci's cost-efficient workshop practice, where expensive ultramarine was reserved for the Virgin's mantle alone.