Virgin and Child Enthroned with a Bishop Saint, Saint John the Baptist, and Four Angels

Niccolò di Buonaccorso was a Sienese miniaturist and panel painter whose refined technique reflects the influence of the great fourteenth-century Sienese masters, particularly Simone Martini. This Virgin and Child Enthroned with a Bishop Saint, Saint John the Baptist, and Four Angels, dating to around 1380 and now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presents an intimate sacra conversazione scaled for personal devotion or a small chapel. The miniaturist precision of its execution reflects Niccolò's training in manuscript illumination.

Executed in egg tempera on panel with gold ground, the painting displays Niccolò's jewel-like miniaturist technique with extraordinarily fine brushwork, delicate facial features, and elaborate tooled and punched gilding in the haloes and background.