Madonna and Child with Saints, Jacopo di Cione

Jacopo di Cione (Italian, c. 1325–c. 1398) Madonna and Child with Saints, 1391 Tempera and gilding on panel Gift of Anna Rice Cooke, 1928 (2834) In this devotional painting, Christ is depicted as the King of Heaven with the Virgin Mary acts as a his throne for Christ, who is depicted as the King of Heaven. Christ, resembling more a grown small man rather than an infant child, he offers a blessing with his right hand and holds a goldfinch, the symbol of his suffering Passion, in his left. Like other 14th-century artists, Jacopo di Cione, like other 14th-century Italian artists, was influenced by the the advances in pictorial naturalism that occurred throughout his lifetime. This work demonstrates shows the artist’s attempt at awareness of linear perspective—, particularly along the floor tiles of the central panel—, and as well as his interest in modeling figures with a sense of mass and volume, both of which help the composition to appear more suggest three dimensionality in the composition.