Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Peter, Saint Agnes, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Lucy, an Unidentified Female Saint, Saint Paul, and Saint John the Baptist, with Eve and the Serpent; the Annunciation

Paolo di Giovanni Fei's Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint John the Evangelist belongs to this Sienese master's production of polyptych altarpieces that maintained the gold-ground tradition of Sienese painting through the late fourteenth century. Fei worked in the generation after the Black Death that devastated Siena in 1348, maintaining the elaborate decorative richness of the pre-plague Sienese tradition while introducing a more accessible emotional warmth. His altarpieces demonstrate how the Sienese tradition survived catastrophe, the gold atmosphere and precise surface decoration persisting as markers of sacred quality even as the figures became more humanly approachable.

This work demonstrates Gothic painting techniques.