Madonna and Child with Saints

This Madonna and Child with Saints by Agnolo Gaddi, dating to around 1390 and now in the St. Andreas Picture Gallery, represents the sacra conversazione type in which the Virgin and Child are flanked by standing saints in a unified pictorial space. Agnolo was the last significant representative of the Giottesque tradition in Florence, running a large and productive workshop that supplied altarpieces to churches throughout Tuscany in the final decades of the Trecento.

Tempera and gold on panel. Gaddi's mature style features softly modeled figures with gentle expressions, set against tooled gold grounds, with the characteristic pastel tonality and graceful drapery rhythms that distinguish his later work.