GIOVANNI DI PAOLO
(b. ca. 1399, Siena, d. 1482, Siena)

Virgin and Child

1440-45
Tempera on wood, 32 x 25 cm
Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg

The Child, seated on a red drapery, is entirely nude. This depiction was introduced by Sassetta in his Madonna delle Nevi. The gesture of his right hand, tenderly caressing the face of his mother, corresponds to a long iconographic tradition of Tuscan painting, a prototype being Duccio's Madonna Crevole.