The Madonna and child with saints.

Bartolomeo Bulgarini was a significant Sienese painter of the mid-Trecento who perpetuated the tradition of Duccio and the Lorenzetti brothers. This Madonna and Child with saints, painted around 1335 for a Sienese church, represents the sacra conversazione format that would become standard in Italian altarpiece design. Bulgarini's conservative yet accomplished style helped maintain Sienese artistic traditions during a period of plague and political upheaval.

Egg tempera on gold-ground panel with punch-tooled haloes and architectural framing elements. Bulgarini follows the Sienese tradition of luminous color and graceful figural proportions, with careful attention to textile patterns in the saints' vestments.