Madonna tra i santi Giovanni Battista e Girolamo

Madonna tra i Santi Giovanni Battista e Girolamo (Madonna with Saints John the Baptist and Jerome), attributed to Biagio d'Antonio and dated around 1490, now in the church of Cristo Re in Florence, is a devotional panel combining Florence's civic patron saint (the Baptist) with Jerome — the scholar-saint whose translation of the Bible connected learning to faith. A Madonna flanked by two saints, one civic and one scholarly, would have been commissioned for an educated, civic-minded Florentine patron — perhaps a merchant or civic official who combined business success with humanist learning. The painting remains in Florentine ecclesiastical custody, connecting it to the devotional culture for which it was made.

Tempera on panel in the sacra conversazione format — the Virgin and Child enthroned or standing between two saints who flank her in gentle conversation, their poses and gazes creating a devotional dialogue across the picture space. The format required Biagio to balance three figures in harmonious spatial relationship while maintaining the Madonna's central primacy.