Maria mit dem Kind

Simone Martini's Maria mit dem Kind is among his intimate devotional Madonna panels, presenting the characteristic synthesis of Byzantine hieratic convention with Gothic linear refinement that made Simone the most influential Sienese painter of the fourteenth century. His Madonna panels were distributed across Italian and European collections during his lifetime and after, spreading the Sienese aesthetic from the Papal court in Avignon where he spent his final years to aristocratic collections throughout the continent. Each version demonstrates his mastery of the precise formal vocabulary he developed for presenting sacred motherhood within the convention of gold-ground Italian painting.

Egg tempera on gold-ground panel with exquisite punch-work and tooled decoration. Simone's hallmark sinuous contour lines define the Virgin's silhouette with calligraphic elegance, while subtle glazing creates luminous flesh tones of exceptional refinement.