Madonna and Child, with the Blessing Christ [middle panel]

Martino di Bartolomeo's central panel Madonna and Child with Blessing Christ, from a triptych of around 1415-20, depicts the enthroned Virgin with the Christ child in the Byzantine-derived hieratic arrangement that Sienese painting had maintained since Duccio. The half-length Christ in a medallion above conveys divine blessing on the sacred scene below, a compositional device derived from Byzantine icon painting that Sienese artists incorporated into their altarpiece tradition. The gold ground, the formal frontal pose of the figures, and the precise linear description of drapery folds all reflect the Sienese conservative tendency to maintain the visual authority of the great Trecento tradition even as Florentine painters were moving decisively toward spatial naturalism. The triptych was likely made for a Sienese church or confraternity seeking sacred images in the established devotional manner.

The tempera-on-panel technique renders the central figures with the greatest refinement within the triptych. The gold ground and rich color create a luminous, devotional atmosphere, while the careful drawing of the Madonna and Child demonstrates Martino's competence within the Sienese tradition.