Madonna And Child Enthroned With Saints

The Master of San Lucchese's Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (c. 1375) in the Birmingham Museums exemplifies the productive tradition of anonymous workshop masters who supplied altarpieces to churches across Tuscany. Named after works in the church of San Lucchese in Poggibonsi, this painter operated in the Florentine-Sienese orbit during the third quarter of the Trecento. The sacra conversazione format—with the enthroned Madonna flanked by standing saints—was the dominant altarpiece type in central Italian Gothic painting.

Tempera and gold on panel with the characteristic structure of a Tuscan Gothic altarpiece. The figures are arranged in formal symmetry against a gold ground, with tooled haloes and decorative borders, rendered in the solid figural style blending Florentine and Sienese conventions.