Virgin with child

Giovanni di ser Giovanni Guidi, known as Lo Scheggia, was Masaccio's younger brother and a specialist in decorative painting, cassone panels, and birth trays in fifteenth-century Florence. This Virgin with Child from 1506, now in the Louvre, represents the continuation of his workshop tradition into the early sixteenth century. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique. Such devotional panels served both liturgical contexts in churches and chapels and private devotional use in the homes of wealthy families who maintained personal altars and oratories.

The devotional panel reflects the decorative approach of the Florentine cassone painter tradition, with clear drawing, bright tempera colors, and an emphasis on pattern and surface detail characteristic of workshop production.