This painting formed the central part of an altarpiece in the chapel of the Roverella family in S. Giorgio fuori le mura in Ferrara. Pairs of saints with kneeling members of the Roverella family stood in the flanking panels, in an architectural interior c ...

On the left Saint John the Baptist & Saint Zenobius are shown standing near the kneeling Saint Jerome. On the right stand Saint Peter & Saint Dominic while the kneeling figure is Saint Francis. Benozzo Gozzoli was contracted to paint this picture on 2 ...

The Virgin Mary is shown on an inlaid marble throne, with an Eastern carpet at her feet. The Christ Child holds a pomegranate, a symbol of the Passion. The form of the signature, meaning Gentile Bellini, Knight of Venice, indicates that the picture cannot be from before 1469, when Gentile Bellini was knighted. The decorative treatment & some details, such as the tiny trees in the Gothic tradition, would suggest a fairly early date. ...

The Virgin Mary is seated on an elaborate throne with the Christ Child. The Child is standing, giving a sign of blessing. Above them, the foreshortened figure of God the Father is dispatching the dove of the Holy Spirit. This work, together with ' Head of a Tonsured Beardless Saint' & ' Head of a Tonsured Bearded Saint' also in the Collection, are the surviving fragments (now transferred to canvas) from a street tabernacle painted at the Canto de' Carnesecchi, not far from the Piazza Santa Maria Novella, Florence. The two heads of saints are fragments from the sides of the tabernacle. According to the painter & biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511
- 1574), this was one of Domenico's first works in Florence.
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This is a variant of Benozzo's altarpiece, ' The Virgin & Child Enthroned', with the attendant saints omitted. Two extra seated angels are added, apparently from a design of Donatello. This work was probably done soon after the altarpiece, perhaps in Ben ...

Probably an early work, painted in Antwerp in the 1490s. The Virgin is being crowned. The gold of her elaborate Gothic throne, suggestive of a church, is created with gold leaf overlaid with black lines, whereas the radiance around the Virgin's head & t ...

This panel is one of the earliest paintings in the Collection. The Virgin is wearing a Byzantine crown & is seated on a lion-headed throne; she holds Christ on her lap. In the corners of the central section are the symbols of the four Evangelists. The eight smaller scenes on either side of the Virgin show episodes from the lives of saints: Saint John the Evangelist in a cauldron of boiling oil; Saint John the Evangelist resuscitating a woman called Drusiana; The Nativity with the Annunciation to the Shepherds; Saint Benedict rolling in brambles to overcome the temptation; Saint Nicholas' warning to the pilgrims to throw deadly oil given to them by the devil into the sea; Saint Catherine beheaded & her body carried to Mount Sinai by angels; Saint Nicholas miraculously saving three innocent men from being decapitated; & Saint Margaret in prison swallowed by a dragon & escaping unhurt. ...

The Virgin & Child are shown in a closed garden, the 'hortus conclusus' (closed garden in Latin), which represents chastity. Of the flowers, the iris is frequently shown as a symbol of the Virgin's grief. ...

The Christ Child, at the Virgin's breast, stares out of the picture. The landscape with its tall mountains is typical of landscape depiction in the Low Countries in the 16th century. In the past this picture has been ascribed to van Orley, but it appears n ...

The object held by the Child is a toy that could be made to rise & fall. Its shape recalls the Cross on which the adult Christ will be crucified. The pot of carnations on the right probably symbolises Christ's Passion. The extensive & detailed landsca ...