Virgin and Child with Two Angels

Italian (School of Lucca), active C. 1288–1308 
c. 1290
Tempera painting on lindenwood panel
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

This small, gilded panel by the Tuscan painter Deodato Orlandi shows the influence of the great Proto-Renaissance master Cimabue. Like Cimabue, Orlandi employs the soft, elegant International Gothic style, which phased out the heavier Byzantine style that had previously been popular in Italian painting. The small size of the panel suggests it was either used for personal devotion or was originally the left side of a diptych – a foldable artwork of two flat panels attached by a hinge.