Madonna and Child with Two Angels before a Rose Hedge

Born in Siena, the painter Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia (Giovanni, son of Paolo di Grazia) received important commissions from private and institutional patrons in his native city throughout his long career. His works are among the most individualistic creations in Italian Renaissance painting. The composition of the Madonna and Child flanked by two angels is a typically Sienese interpretation of a pictorial formula created in Florence. The cult of the Virgin was especially strong in Siena, since the city was under her protection. Small panel paintings with her image were commonly made for private devotion in a small chapel or bedroom. Toward the end of the fifteenth century, high demand for such images resulted in the establishment of a lively trade that flourished in Florence and Siena. Executed in the last years of the artist’s long career, this work exhibits the strong intervention of workshop assistants. The clumsy rendering of the anatomy, especially the arms and hands of the Virgin and the Christ Child’s awkward turn of the torso, can be attributed to the work of assistants in the aging master’s workshop.