Madonna and Child with St. Catherine of Siena, Saint Anthony of Padua and Angels

Matteo di Giovanni painted this Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine of Siena and Anthony of Padua and Angels around 1480. As Siena's leading painter, Matteo's Madonna compositions with flanking saints were in great demand for churches and private devotion. The inclusion of Catherine of Siena, the great Dominican mystic, reflects local Sienese devotion. This work belongs to the Early Renaissance, the transformative period in European art when painters first applied mathematical perspective, naturalistic figure modeling, and archaeological interest in antiquity to the inherited traditions of medieval devotional painting.

Tempera on panel with Matteo's characteristic bold drawing and rich Sienese coloring. The symmetrical arrangement of saints and angels around the Madonna demonstrates his mastery of the sacra conversazione format.