Virgin and Child Enthroned with a Bishop Saint, Saint John the Baptist, and Four Angels

Niccolò di Buonaccorso (Italian (Sienese), active about 1370–died in 1388)

about 1380

Medium/TechniqueTempera on panel

Dimensions46.3 x 31.7 cm (18 1/4 x 12 1/2 in.)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Thomas O. Richardson

Accession number20.1860

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

Description

This is probably the central section of a portable triptych (three-part altarpiece) whose wings are now missing. The artist maintained the dedication to sinuous line-pioneered by Duccio and seen here in the hems of the draperies-but added highly textured effects of patterned cloth through a lavish use of gold.

Provenance19th century, acquired in Gubbio, Italy, by Mary Rich (Mrs. Thomas O.) Richardson (b. 1849 - d. 1924), Florence, Boston, and Newport [see note 1]; 1920, gift of Mrs. Thomas O. Richardson to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 13, 1920)

NOTES:
[1] In a letter to the MFA (November 24, 1907), Mrs. Richardson wrote that the painting had been acquired in Gubbio "many years" earlier, and that it was attributed at the time to Lucas Cranach. It is possible that it had been included in the sale of the Ranghiasci-Brancaleoni collection (held in Gubbio, April 12, 1882) although there is no painting listed in the sale catalogue that can be definitively identified with the MFA painting. See Laurence B. Kanter, Italian Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston: MFA, 1994), cat. no. 21, p. 106.