The Madonna and Christ Enthroned

This enthroned Madonna and Christ by Rinaldo da Siena, preserved in the Church of the Poor Clares, reflects the devotional needs of the Clarissan order — the female branch of the Franciscan movement — in late thirteenth-century Siena. Rinaldo da Siena was a contemporary of Guido of Siena who contributed to the development of the Sienese school in its formative decades. Paintings created for female monastic communities often emphasized the tender, maternal aspects of the Virgin, suited to the contemplative spirituality of enclosed religious women.

Executed in egg tempera on gold-ground panel, the work shows Rinaldo's characteristic Sienese approach to the enthroned Madonna type with refined linear drawing and a decorative sensibility in the throne's architectural details. The Virgin and Child relationship displays the gentler emotional register that would become a hallmark of the Sienese school.