Madonna and Child

This refined "Madonna and Child," evidently intended for private devotion, was produced in the workshop of Lippo Memmi, one of the preeminent fourteenth-century Sienese painters along with his brother-in-law and collaborator Simone Martini. The Virgin’s elegant silhouette, which overlaps the tooled gold of the border, provides a nuanced sense of space that belies the flat gold background. The gold robes, elegantly tooled with vegetal patterns, are well-preserved, as is the Child’s head. The Virgin’s head is also in good condition but is not part of the original painting—in about 1400 an unknown artist scraped away the original head and replaced it with the present one. This change was likely done to refresh the earlier image or perhaps to replace an area that had become damaged.