Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and St. Mary Magdelene

Simone dei Crocifissi created this Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene for devotional use, pairing the Virgin with two of the most popular intercessory saints in medieval Christianity. The inclusion of both the Baptist and the Magdalene — the penitent par excellence — suggests the panel may have been commissioned by a lay confraternity devoted to penitential piety. Simone's Bolognese workshop produced numerous such devotional panels for the churches, hospitals, and private chapels of fourteenth-century Bologna.

Painted in tempera on gold-ground panel, the work arranges the four figures in a symmetrical, hieratic composition reflecting the Bolognese school's continued attachment to Byzantine formal models. The warm earth tones and rich gilding are characteristic of Simone dei Crocifissi's devotional panels.