Virgin and Child Enthroned

Private collection

religious

The Virgin and Child are shown seated on a ledge. What would normally be the backrest of the throne behind them is substituted instead by two red seraphim. Above them Christ is shown as the Redeemer, holding the New Testament in one hand and raising the other hand in blessing.

About the Artist

Sano Di Pietro

1406 – 1481

Italian painter and illuminator, active in Siena, where he was pupil and follower of Sassetta. . In 1428 he was listed in the guild of painters in Siena just before Sassetta. The same year he was paid for gilding and colouring a Baptism (untraced), possibly Sassetta's design for the Siena Baptistery font made in 1427. In 1432 he assessed Sassetta's Virgin and Child with Saints (the Madonna of the Snow; Florence, Pitti), and after Sassetta's death in 1450, Sano completed works left unfinished by him, including the fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin over the Porta Romana (1458–66), Siena, and the St Francis (Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale). He painted many scenes from the life of St Bernardino, including St Bernardino Preaching in Siena Cathedral.

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