Madonna lactans and Noli me tangere

Barnaba da Modena was an Emilian painter active across northern Italy and even in Genoa's Mediterranean trading networks, spreading the Gothic style beyond its Tuscan heartland. This unusual double-subject panel pairing the Madonna Lactans with the Noli me Tangere juxtaposes Christ's infancy and resurrection, creating a typological meditation on incarnation and salvation. Such compound devotional images served private contemplation in the late Trecento.

Executed in egg tempera on panel with gold ground, the work displays Barnaba's distinctive blend of Byzantine iconographic formulas with softer Gothic modeling. The Madonna Lactans retains hieratic frontality while the Noli me Tangere scene shows greater narrative freedom in its spatial arrangement.