Virgin and Child with Saint Peter and Saint Paul

This Virgin and Child with Saint Peter and Saint Paul by Bernardo Daddi, painted around 1340, is a sacra conversazione — a devotional image showing the Madonna flanked by saints in quiet communion. Daddi was the most successful Florentine panel painter of his generation, running a large workshop that produced countless devotional images for churches, confraternities, and private patrons. Now in the Courtauld Gallery, London, the panel demonstrates the standardized yet refined production that made Daddi's workshop central to Florentine religious life.

Egg tempera and gold leaf on panel with carefully tooled haloes and a unified gold background. Daddi's figures show his characteristic blend of Giottesque solidity with a softer, more lyrical sweetness in the facial features and gently curving drapery lines.