Pratovecchio Altarpiece

The Pratovecchio Altarpiece is the work from which the Master of Pratovecchio takes his name — a conventional scholarly designation for an anonymous Florentine painter whose most securely attributed works form this ensemble. Named after Pratovecchio, a town in the Casentino valley east of Florence where the altarpiece may have originated, the master produced a multi-panel work that reflects Florentine tradition in the mid-fifteenth century — gold-ground devotional panels whose style sits between the late International Gothic and emerging Renaissance naturalism. The National Gallery holds several components, making it the primary institutional record of this artist's practice.

Tempera and gold leaf on panel. Style is consistent with Florentine workshop practice of the 1440s-1450s: elegant figure types, tooled gold grounds, and linear drapery that has absorbed some spatial awareness without fully embracing Masaccian volume. The altarpiece's overall programme can be partially reconstructed from the surviving components.