Virgin Mary and Child

Scuola toscana XIV sec. d.C./ inizi

On the masonite support are the remains of an ancient painting datable to the early 14th century: although very fragmentary, one can guess the depiction, which is that of the Virgin Mary holding the Baby Jesus in her arms. This is the mural that was painted under the fresco displayed here on the side, with the same subject, painted by Agnolo Gaddi around 1395. The numerous engraving marks and the visible straight and diagonal lines can be traced back to the chisel work that was behind the application of the new layer of plaster on which Agnolo Gaddi would later paint a devotional icon with a more contemporary flavour.

Technical information

Author: Scuola toscana
Title: Virgin Mary and Child
Date: XIV sec. d.C./ inizi
Material and technique: Detached fresco
Size: 142x75 cm
Location: Palazzo Pretorio Museum
First Floor

The depictions of the Virgin Mary and Child were painted, the first at the beginning of the 14th century, the second, superimposed, towards the end of the same, in a room that must have been the rectory of the ancient church of San Donato, next to Palazzo Pretorio. After the demolition of the church, the so-called Palazzo delle Scuole or Palazzo Valentini, named after its designer Giuseppe Valentini, was erected in its place in 1825-1829. The building still exists and is adorned with a portico on the square of the Town Hall. The architecture also incorporated the old rectory, in which the Gaddi fresco and the previous and underlying 14th-century Virgin Mary were found and restored around 1965. Its attribution, also due to the work's state of preservation, is still a subject of study.