• Author: Giottino
• Date: 1356
• Collection: PAINTING
• Technique: Detached fresco
• Dimensions: 310x152 cm
• Inventory: Depositi n. 202

The fresco depicts the Virgin and Child enthroned, flanked by eight angels and Saints John the Baptist and Bernard. It originally decorated a tabernacle in Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence but, between the 17th and 18th centuries, it was removed and relocated at the corner of Via del Leone and Via della Chiesa. According to an ancient headstone on the tabernacle, a chapel was established there by Gherardo di Bernardo Manfredi in 1356, when the fresco was painted. The inscription also record the name of the father of the patron, Bernardo, and therefore allows to identify the holy monk with the white cowl – without specific attributes – as his eponymous saint.

The fresco is the work of Giottino, one of Giotto’s greatest followers and one of the most important painters of the 14th century, able of creating a sublime synthesis between the values of spatiality and volume inherited from his master and an extreme naturalism that scrutinises every aspect of reality. The dense and nuanced modelling of his painting faithfully renders the different textures of surfaces, such as the thick camel hair of the Baptist and the soft beard of Saint Bernard. The position of the two saints in the foreground, their backs almost turned on the observer to address the sacred protagonists, coherently occupying the space, was a true innovation in the artistic panorama of those years. Of the two, only Saint John, with a stern and thoughtful expression, turns his head towards the faithful to indicate the Lamb of God.