Virgin and Child with Saints and Angels
by MATTEO di Giovanni, Tempera and tooled gold on panel, 75 x 55 cm
The Virgin holds the Christ Child and is flanked by two angels and Saints Jerome (at the left) and Bernardino of Siena (at the right). Bernardino (1380-1444) holds up a tablet monogrammed with the name of Christ. The monogram is partly covered by Jesus’s head to show us its true meaning. The naturalistic modeling of the figures and their overlapping spatial arrangement reveal Matteo di Giovanni’s mastery of the new way of creating pictorial space. At the same time, as a tribute to his native city, he includes the traditional Sienese gold ground of earlier centuries.