The Virgin and Child Enthroned

Lorenzo Monaco's Virgin and Child Enthroned, painted around 1418 for the National Galleries Scotland, is a late masterwork by the leading painter of the International Gothic in Florence. Created near the end of Lorenzo Monaco's career, this altarpiece represents his final, most refined expression of the Gothic tradition that Masaccio's revolution would soon transform. Lorenzo Monaco — Piero di Giovanni — was a Camaldolese monk who became one of Florence's most gifted painters in the transition between the Gothic and the Early Renaissance.

The enthroned Madonna displays Lorenzo Monaco's ultimate refinement of line and color, with luminous blues and flowing draperies creating an effect of transcendent beauty within the gold-ground panel format.