The Master of Saint Cecilia worked in Florence during a time of great artistic change, when the influence of Giotto created an increased interest in depicting the human body with volume and weight. Here, the Madonna sits firmly on her throne, her corporeal form revealed under her robes and her feet firmly planted on the step.
The gentle inclination of the Madonna’s head and her full embrace of the Christ Child reflect the growing tendency toward naturalism in Italian painting of this period. This is underlined by the artist’s attention to the sweetly realized figure of a kneeling St. Francis, whose foot abuts the engaged frame of the painting.
Details
- Artist Name: Master of Saint Cecilia (Italian, active c. 1280-1330)
- Title: Madonna and Child Enthroned, with St. Francis
- Date: c. 1315
- Medium: Tempera and gold leaf on panel, with pointed top
- Dimensions: 49-3/4 x 27-1/8 in. (126.4 x 68.9 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation, Gift of Jennifer Jones Simon
- Accession Number: M.1994.2.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Baroness Sigrid von Eicke (sale, London, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 10 December 1975, lot 70. ill., as The Master of the Horne Triptych, The Madonna and Child Enthroned with a Donor, to);
Norton Simon Collection, to;
Jennifer Jones Simon Art Trust, gift 1994 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
The Expressive Body: Memory, Devotion, Desire (1400-1750)
- Norton Simon Museum, 2021-10-15 to 2022-03-07
- Offner, R., A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting, pls. XXV, XXV1, XXV2, XXV3
- Boskovits, M., The Fourteenth Century, section III p. 242
- Friedman, The Symbolistic Goldfinch: Its History and Significance in European Devotional Art, 1946, p. 147
- Freemantle, R., Florentine Gothic Painters from Giotto to Masaccio, 1975, p. 44
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1293 p. 391
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