SIMONE MARTINI
(b. 1280/85, Siena, d. 1344, Avignon)

Madonna and Child with Angels and the Saviour

1320
Tempera on wood, 165 x 57 cm
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Orvieto

The Madonna and Child with Angels and the Saviour in the Orvieto Cathedral Museum is the central piece of a polyptych that also included the panel showing a martyred saint, now in the Ottawa National Gallery, and perhaps also the two panels of St Catherine of Alexandria and St Lucy, now in Harvard University's Berenson Collection in Settignano, near Florence. We have no date, no signature and no documents containing any information at all regarding the dating of this work: stylistic analysis is the only element that critics have been able to use. This justifies the widely varying opinions that have been expressed on the subject.