Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine and John the Baptist (c. 1340–50): Art, History and Details

Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine and John the Baptist (c. 1340–50) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giovanni di Agostino (Italian, c. 1310–1370).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The Madonna is seated beneath a Gothic-arched canopy flanked by Saints Catherine and John the Baptist. A rectangular frame encloses the group. Most likely from a Sienese church interior, the work is probably a fragment of a larger sculptural program such as a tomb. An authentic Gothic style in sculpture appeared in Tuscany from the mid 1200s through about 1350 elucidated by the work of Giovanni di Agostino, Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, and others who were active on Siena Cathedral’s sculptural program. Agostino’s work suggests an awareness of Gothic sculpture and the decorative arts in France from which he borrowed freely. This relief was probably completed just before the plague of 1348, an event which altered the degree and character of Sienese art.

Object facts

• Title: Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine and John the Baptist
• Date: c. 1340–50
• Creator attribution: Giovanni di Agostino (Italian, c. 1310–1370)
• Culture: Italy, Siena
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble with traces of polychromy and gilding
• Dimensions: Overall: 70.5 x 52.5 x 5.9 cm (27 3/4 x 20 11/16 x 2 5/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1942.1162

Collection credit

In memory of Henry G. Dalton by his nephews, George S. Kendrick and Harry D. Kendrick

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William M. “A Memorial to Henry G. Dalton.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 30, no. 3 (March 1943): 23–25.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.