madonna col bambino e santi, lucca

This Madonna and Child with Saints by Berlinghiero Berlinghieri, active in Lucca, represents the earliest generation of named Italian panel painters working in the Italo-Byzantine tradition. The Berlinghieri workshop was among the first to produce signed panel paintings in Tuscany, bridging the gap between anonymous Byzantine icon production and the emergence of individual artistic identity. Now at the Cleveland Museum of Art, this work documents the devotional art that filled Lucchese churches in the early Duecento.

Painted in egg tempera with extensive gold leaf on a wooden panel, the composition follows the Byzantine sacra conversazione format. The figures display the characteristic Berlinghieri style: elongated proportions, heavy-lidded eyes, and stylized linear drapery derived from Byzantine models.