Madonna and Child

This deteriorated detached fresco, depicting the Madonna and Child, is attributable to the well-known painter Agnolo Gaddi, son of Giotto ’s pupil Taddeo. He painted it during the years he frescoed the Chapel of the Sacred Girdle in the Cathedral in Prato. It was found in a room near the suppressed church of Saint Donatus, located right next to Palazzo Pretorio, at the end of the sixties of the last century when it was detached and reattached to a new support.
The Virgin Mary at the centre of the figure, supports the Child, who gives his blessing and holds a goldfinch in his hand, a symbol of the passion that will await him. In fact, there is a tradition that a goldfinch was stained with the blood of Christ when trying to remove a thorn of the crown from his forehead, during his ascent to Calvary before the crucifixion.
The intensity with which the Virgin Mary's face is depicted, with a melancholy expression that almost presages the destiny of the child she holds, together with the elegant rhythm of the flexible lines, make this fresco or detached fresco still fascinating, despite its appearance of fragments and wear.
Considering its great refinement, it may be attributable to the later phase of Agnolo Gaddi's career, when his "tender" colour palette was influenced by the so-called international Gothic trend.