Maestà attributed to the Master of Bigallo

This Maestà attributed to the Master of the Bigallo Crucifixion depicts the Virgin and Child enthroned in majesty, a subject that became the defining commission for Florentine and Sienese painters of the Duecento. The anonymous master takes his name from a crucifix associated with the Misericordia del Bigallo in Florence, and his work represents the transition from rigid Italo-Byzantine formulas toward a more volumetric and expressive Gothic style. Now in São Paulo, this panel documents the global dispersal of important Italian Gothic paintings through twentieth-century collecting.

Executed in egg tempera and gold leaf on panel with a gesso ground, the painting features the enthroned Virgin in a frontal, hieratic composition. The style shows emerging three-dimensionality in the drapery modeling while retaining Byzantine conventions in the gold ground and iconic figural arrangement.