Virgin Mary with Child and Saint John

Tommaso di Piero Trombetto 1529

Audio description of the artwork

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The tondo is being exhibited for the first time after a major restoration, which has revived colours and details that were no longer visible, confirming its attribution to Tommaso di Piero Trombetto. In this painting, as in the others from the same workshop, we can see quotations and inventions from better-known painters, which Trombetto translates into popular and vibrant forms. The landscape background that disappears beyond the horizon line takes inspiration from Andrea del Verrocchio; the prototype of this Virgin Mary with Child recalls the climate of Filippino Lippi from whom the artist was most frequently inspired, thanks to the models easily found in the Prato area.

Technical information

Author: Tommaso di Piero Trombetto
Title: Virgin Mary with Child and Saint John
Date: 1529
Material and technique: Tempera on panel
Size: 84 cm (diametro)
Location: Palazzo Pretorio Museum
First Floor

From the Tabernacle of Mercatale and the Audience Hall Altarpiece, the painter revisits the physiognomy of the Virgin and the slight twisting of the Child, who, restless, turns towards the little Saint John. The scroll held by the saint with the phrase Ecce Agnus Dei is associated in the painting with the figure of Jesus blessing and holding the globe surmounted by the cross, a symbol of Christ's supremacy over the earthly world. These signs, the product of simple devotion made up of familiar, sometimes archaic gestures, illustrate the environment in which Trombetto was at ease, in contact with a local patronage, reluctant to innovate and therefore ready to accept models and compositions taken from the larger workshops and repeated several times. This Virgin Mary with Child is in fact very similar to other compositions by the same author, among which there is a particular similarity to the central group of the Sacra Conversazione (Sacred Conversation) preserved in the Pieve di Figline Museum and considered to be one of the master's final artworks.