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Madonna dei vetturini Siena
Artist: Giovanni di Paolo
Current location: Museo di San Donato - Collezione di Banca MPS
Original location:
DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION
dimensions
85 x 56.5 cm
Until 1964 the panel, recognized by critics as the work of Giovanni di Paolo's full maturity, was located in the tabernacle of Via delle Terme - formerly of the Arte della Lana - which in ancient times dominated the entrance portal to the coachmen's cabins in Siena: hence the curious name of "Madonna dei Vetturini". As evidenced by an inscription on the reverse of the panel, the work was placed in the tabernacle of the Wool Guild in 1832 as a gift from the Mencherini family to the tabernacle of the Guild of Linaioli. It was damaged and resected along the edges, the painting constituted the central panel of an altar table with several compartments, the presence of which is indicated by the same pose and by the gesture of the Child Jesus who, holding himself with his left hand to the Mother's mantle, leans out of the composition recalled by the presence of a possible client or some holy personage. The tender freshness of the complexions, the preciousness of the chromatic range and the refined elegance of the fold motifs of the Virgin's veil, make this work one of the best expressions of Giovanni di Paolo's painting: still far from sharp graphics and woody forms and involved in his later phase, the artist seems to act under the influence of the splendid and refined elegance of late Gothic painting, of which Siena, in 1426, had had a direct taste with the presence in the city of Gentile da Fabriano.
Madonna dei vetturini