Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints by Fra Angelico in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, June 2010

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Peter, Paul and George (?), Four Angels, and a Donor
about 1446–49
Fra Angelico, Italian (Florentine), about 1395/1400–1455

Dimensions: 24.9 x 24.8 cm (9 13/16 x 9 3/4 in.)

Medium or Technique: Tempera on panel

Classification: Paintings
Type: Religious - Saints; Portrait - Donor; Shaped

Accession Number: 14.416

Although the Virgin Mary, seated on a throne, occupies the center of this composition, the gazes of several of the figures are drawn toward the kneeling figure in clerical dress at lower left. This figure, whom Saint Peter presents to the Christ Child, is the donor, who commissioned the painting. The work was originally two-sided, with a head of Christ on the reverse, but its original function remains a mystery since it is much smaller than the trays presented as gifts to new mothers in fifteenth-century Florence.

Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/virgin-and-child-enthroned...