Gentile da Fabriano, Madonna of Humility

Description

The famous tablet represents one of the most precious testimonies of the late Gothic, and not only in Tuscany. Its chronological location, although the subject of many discussions, is thought to precede the transfer of the painter from the Marche to Florence in 1422. Having come to the Museum from the Pia Casa di Misericordia, a rich and well-known institution founded in the eleventh century, it is likely that it was commissioned by the directors of the same institution, also to give new prestige to the Pia Casa itself. The theme of the Madonna of Humility, so dear to the Tuscan figurative tradition, is renewed by Gentile with the introduction of the motif of the Madonna with her arms crossed on her chest, signifying the submission of the Virgin Mother to her Divine Son. Needless to say, the elegance of the contour lines and the preciousness of the ornamentation make this small panel a true jewel of devotional painting, all the more precious if we bear in mind that these notes do not diminish, but rather contribute, to creating a perfectly balanced whole, in which the decorative factor is not an end in itself, but becomes a pictorial value itself.