• Author: Gherardo Starnina
• Date: c. 1405-1410
• Collection: PAINTING
• Technique: Tempera and gold on wood panel
• Dimensions: 104 x 58,5 cm
• Inventory: Inv. 1890 n. 441

This small painting, intended for personal contemplation, depicts the Virgin and Child seated on a bank of clouds and surrounded by a mandorla of seraphim, according to the iconography of the Virgin of celestial Humility, a particular declination of the Virgin of Humility in which Mary is not seated on the ground, but appears suspended in the clouds as Regina Coeli. At Mary’s feet are kneeling Saint John the Baptist and Saint Nicholas, the latter recognisable by the three golden spheres he holds in his hand, his typical attribute. On either side of the Virgin, there are two pairs of angels. Behind the heads of the two divine messengers holding a vase of flowers, the two capitals belonging to the original frame of the panel can be recognised.

In the past, the author of this painting was called Master of the Bambino Vispo precisely because of the extremely lively attitude with which the baby Jesus is portrayed here; indeed, he seems to be wriggling out of his mother’s embrace. This painter was later identified as Gherardo Starnina, who was active in Valencia between 1395 and 1401. Memories of this Iberian experience can also be found in our work, particularly in the exaggerated, almost humorous expressions of the characters, in the bright colours that enhance the joyful atmosphere of the scene, but above all in the gaudy decoration of the floor tiles and of Saint Nicholas’ cope. Alongside these aspects of international culture, however, Starnina also tries to recover the great Florentine pictorial tradition of the early 14th century, as demonstrated by the two angels with vases of flowers: a homage to Giotto’s Madonna di Ognissanti (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi).