14th century, Italian panel painting of Madonna and Child in gilt wooden frame.

Anonymous artist. Tempera on panel, of the Tuscan school.

Such panels tend to be within complex wooden carved frames, although in this instance the frame is quite simple.

This is the painting in situ, hanging above Harold Acton's four-poster bed in his bedroom in La Pietra, Florence. Above the painting is hung a textile depicting two putti.

The pose of the Madonna and Child recalls famous examples of such iconography, such as Duccio di Buoninsegna's Stoclet Madonna (which is contemporary, or perhaps earlier than this example). It has been suggested in relation to this other example that the childish reach of the Christ child's hand is distinctive of the sensibility of the Tuscan school that imbues the figures with palpable human emotion, the Virgin’s somewhat austere gaze being indicative of her anticipating Christ’s future.

Clare Stainthorp