Traditio Legis and Trinity

Orcagna (Andrea di Cione) was the dominant artistic personality in Florence during the decades following the Black Death of 1348, heading a large family workshop that dominated Florentine painting and sculpture. The Traditio Legis, depicting Christ entrusting the law to St Peter and the keys to St Paul, combined with the Trinity, addresses core doctrines of papal authority and divine nature. This theological program reflects the Church's reassertion of orthodox teaching in the aftermath of the plague's social upheaval.

Painted in tempera on panel with extensive gold ground and tooled haloes, the work exemplifies Orcagna's hieratic, monumental style that deliberately retreated from Giotto's naturalism toward a more iconic, Byzantine-influenced grandeur. Figures are arranged in rigid, symmetrical compositions emphasizing doctrinal clarity.