Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter, and Two Angels

Tuscan 13th Century

National Gallery of Art

A woman and child sit on a throne against a shiny gold background in this vertical panel painting. Two winged angels in the upper corners and two men in the lower corners are about half the size of the woman and child. They all have pale skin with pink cheeks and gold halos. The woman’s head tilts to our right, and she looks off over our right shoulder with hazel eyes. She has a narrow nose, and her lips are set in a line. Her brows angle downward and her chin pulls back, creating a slightly distorted triangular face. A marine-blue mantle covers her head and wraps around a blush-pink robe. The child sits upright with his body facing us and his head turned to look to our left. He has short, light brown hair with light brown eyes, and he wears a scarlet-red robe with a dusty rose-pink mantle draped over one shoulder and across his lap. He points to our left with one hand and holds a white scroll lined with black in the other. They sit on a wide, rust-red seat with a tomato-red cushion. The angels in the upper corners hold up a cloth patterned with garnet-red flowers and black and gold pinwheels behind the pair. The angel on the left wears a muted pink cloak over a sage-green robe, and the other angel wears a bone-white cloak over pink. The two men standing in the lower corners look up at the woman and child. The man on the left has long brown hair and beard and wears a muted pink robe over a long, furry garment. He holds a long scroll in his right hand, on our left. The abbreviated writing on the scroll reads, “ECE AGNU DEI: UI.” The man in the lower right is balding and has a gray beard. He wears an orange cloak wrapped around a dark blue robe. Two gold keys hang on red thread in his left hand, on our right. The panel has a wide, cranberry-red border decorated with black and gold stylized flowers and vines.