Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Lucy, Margaret, Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria

The Master of Saint Cecilia's altarpiece of the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Lucy, Margaret, Mary Magdalene, and Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1290) from the Detroit Institute of Arts belongs to the pivotal generation of Florentine painting just before and after Cimabue. The Master of Saint Cecilia is named for his altarpiece in the church of Santa Cecilia in Florence — a painter who absorbed Cimabue's innovations while maintaining connections to the older Byzantine tradition. This devotional altarpiece with its four female saints reflects the late thirteenth-century Italian Church's expanding veneration of female martyrs and mystics.

The altarpiece shows the transitional style characteristic of 1290s Florence: the gold ground and frontal presentation of the Byzantine tradition combined with increasing attention to three-dimensional form in the figures. The Virgin's drapery is more naturalistic than earlier Florentine panels while still following Byzantine conventions for the Christ child's blessing gesture.