VIVARINI, Bartolomeo
(b. ca. 1440, Murano, d. ca. 1499, Murano)

Triptych

c. 1465
Tempera and gold on wood, 58 x 46 cm (central), 57 x 24 cm (each wing)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Vivarini were a family of Venetian painters whose prolific workshop specialized in large multi-tiered altarpieces for churches throughout the Veneto region. This relatively small triptych was likely intended for private devotion. It reflects the stylistic transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance.

In the triptych four smaller panels, illustrating scenes from Mary's life (the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Pietà), surround the central image of the Madonna of Humility.