Madonna enthroned with two angels

The Master of the Magdalen's Madonna Enthroned with Two Angels (c. 1280) belongs to the generation that preceded Cimabue and Duccio's revolution in Italian painting — a generation still working primarily within Byzantine conventions but increasingly aware of the expressive possibilities of naturalism. The Master of the Magdalen is named for an altarpiece depicting Saint Mary Magdalene; this Berlin panel shows the Maestà (Majesty) type — the Virgin as enthroned queen — that would reach its greatest expression in Duccio's monumental Maestà of 1311. The angels flanking the throne display slightly more naturalistic posing than the rigidly frontal Virgin.

The tempera technique follows Byzantine practice with gold ground and careful tooling. The throne is depicted with a shallow, stylized perspective. Drapery falls in schematic, linear folds derived from Byzantine manuscript illumination. Yet the angels' varied angles show an emerging interest in physical variety that would develop rapidly in the generation that followed.