Virgin and Child Enthroned (1419): Art, History and Details

Virgin and Child Enthroned (1419) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Battista di Biagio Sanguigni (Italian, active 1393–1451).

The work and its context

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

Rather than depicting a single moment in time, this gold-ground painting symbolically encapsulates Christ. Seated on a rich throne, the monumental Virgin holds the Christ child. Above, the risen Christ is seen in heaven holding a book, inscribed with the alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, signifying Christ’s role as the beginning and end of all things. The Italian inscription states: "This painting was made for Antonio di Domenicho Giugni for the repose of his soul, the year of our Lord 1419." In the 1300s, Italian painting focused on the heavenly aspects of Christian faith in order to convey abstract religious concepts. Depicted as specimens of formal beauty, sacred figures were placed against an ethereal gold background. Within a hundred years, artists began to highlight the earthly aspects of sacred figures, placing them within naturalistic landscapes. In this newer style of painting, the approachability of sacred figures fostered devotion among the faithful.

Object facts

• Title: Virgin and Child Enthroned
• Date: 1419
• Creator attribution: Battista di Biagio Sanguigni (Italian, active 1393–1451)
• Culture: Italy, Tuscany
• Type: Painting
• Technique: tempera and gold on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 196.2 x 68.6 x 9.5 cm (77 1/4 x 27 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 196.2 x 68.2 cm (77 1/4 x 26 7/8 in.); with original molding and pinnacle: 129 x 59 cm (50 13/16 x 23 1/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1954.834

Collection credit

Gift of the Hanna Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Nicolson, Benedict. "The Master of 1419." The Burlington Magazine 96, No. 615 (1954): 181.
• Pouncey, Philip. "A New Panel by The Master of 1419." The Burlington Magazine 96, No. 618 (1954): 291–92, 195.
• Francis, Henry. "Master of 1419." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 43, no. 10 (December 1956): 211-213.

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.