The Virgin and Child Enthroned

An enthroned Virgin and Child — the Maestà type — formed the central image of altarpieces across Italian painting from the Byzantine period through the Renaissance, and Schiavone's version from 1458 in the National Gallery places him in dialogue with this centuries-long tradition. His training under Squarcione, who emphasised classical sculptural models, gives this Madonna an unusually architectural quality — the throne rendered as a classicising structure, the figures occupying it with the solid gravity of carved relief. This panel is likely the central element of the polyptych whose surrounding saints appear in the accompanying panels held in the same collection.

The enthroned composition requires handling of architectural space within the limited depth of a panel painting. Schiavone creates the illusion of the throne's recession through foreshortening and tonal modelling rather than strict linear perspective.