Master of the Bigallo

(active in Florence 1220-1250) Madonna with Child Enthroned and Two Saints 1240-1245 ca. wooden panel; 129X67.5 cm Church of Santa Maria a Bagnano This solemn image of the Madonna, in the act of presenting the benedictory Child in front of her, belongs — together with a limited group of other paintings — to an anonymous Fiorentine painter; active around the mid 13th century. In 1933, the Austrian scholar Richard Offner reconstructed this artist’s personality, based on the cross kept at the Bigallo Museum in Florence, thus the master’s name. A recent restotation (2000-2001) has aiso dispelled the most tenacious doubts about the paternity of this work — described in the mid 19th century as being in the choir of the Church of Santa Maria a Bagnano — attributing it to the unknown painter. The painting’s rectangular form, from which a fully decorated relief halo extends outward, almost mimicking a sculptural effect, is completely occupied by the Madonna seated on a wooden throne, made more comfortable by a long red cushion. She is wearing a large ruby red tunic, covered by a blue mantle on which three stars stand out: one on her head and one on each shoulder, alluding to the mystery of Mary’s virginity, before, during and after the conception of the Son of God. On the gold background two full-length images of saints are seen: one of the earliest examples recording the substitution of the traditionai angels that flanked the Virgin with the flgures of saints. The young tonsured monk, to the onlooker’s left, wears a richly edged, red robe and has a book in his hand; the female saint to the right is wearing a large grey tunic and is covered by a red mantie. She clutches a cross while raising her left hand in a sign of testimony. Offner identified the two saints as Saint Lawrence and Saint Margaret. Similar to other Madonnas with Child linked to the anonymous master, this wooden panel conflrms the painter’s fondness for warm and intense colors, as well as a propensity for a relaxed and precise line that, at least in the draperies, more than in the faces, hints at a signifìcant plastic rendering