Madonna and Child and donator / Crucifixion

This double-sided devotional panel by Niccolò di Pietro, a Venetian painter active in the late fourteenth century, combines a Madonna and Child with donor on one face and a Crucifixion on the reverse. Dated around 1398 and now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the work reflects the portable devotional objects popular among wealthy Venetian merchants and patricians. Niccolò di Pietro was a key figure in the transition of Venetian painting toward the International Gothic style.

Tempera and gold on panel. Niccolò's refined technique shows Venetian sensitivity to color and surface, with delicate gilding and the emerging influence of International Gothic elegance in the flowing drapery and courtly grace of the figures.