The polyptych The Virgin Enthroned with Child and Saints by P. Veneziano, oil on canvas (135x173 cm.)
This polyptych represents a rare and precious testimony to medieval religious painting of the Clodiense Area. A work by the maestro Paolo Veneziano with the aid of his son Giovanni from 1349, the painting is a splendid depiction of the Virgin Enthroned with Child between Saints. The Madonna sits on a marble throne shown in slight prospective, behind her hangs a precious embroidered drape. The traditional Byzantine pillow has gone and the figure is elongated in a way which appears more gothic than byzantine in style. The Virgin's neck and shoulders curve gently, wrapped in precious materials which fall in stately folds.
The colours of the flesh are pale as are those of the clothes, accentuating tones and folds. The figures of the saints are also slender and elongated, they too wrapped in elegant, adorned clothes. They too may read as being in the gothic style, a new style in which all traces of the byzantine disappears.
