Virgin and Child

This Virgin and Child by Bernardo Daddi, dating to around 1346, represents one of the last works by the most prolific Florentine panel painter of the mid-Trecento. Daddi, who had trained under Giotto, developed a gentler, more intimate devotional style that proved enormously popular with Florentine patrons. This late work was created just two years before the Black Death devastated Florence in 1348, killing Daddi himself and marking the end of an era in Florentine painting.

Painted in egg tempera with gold ground on panel, this late Madonna shows Daddi's refined technique at its most accomplished — soft, luminous flesh tones, delicately modeled features, and rich decorative detail in the gold tooling and textile patterns. The intimate scale and tender interaction between Mother and Child reflect Daddi's signature devotional sensibility.