Virgin and Child with Eight Angels
by MAZZA, Tommaso del, Poplar panel, gold ground, 85 x 61 cm
This painting is the central panel of a triptych. The wings represents Sts John the Baptist and Anthony of Padua with the donor Bonifazio Lupi (left), and Sts John the Evangelist and Louis of Toulouse with Catarina dei Francesi, the donor’s wife.
While continuing to refer to Giotto, Florentine painters began to introduce a refined linear Gothic style. An example is the triptych by Tommaso del Mazza, commisssioned for the main altar of the hospital founded in Florence by Bonifazio Lupi in 1386, and dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.