Crucifixion, Madonna, and saints

Around 1300 a wealthy Florentine could own a private altar small enough to fold shut and carry. This is one: a little panel in tempera and gold, barely 50 centimetres, with two hinged wings that close over the centre. Open, it shows the Madonna enthroned with the Child among saints, and on the right wing the Crucifixion, with Mary and John on the hill of Calvary. Who exactly painted it has been argued over. The scholar Richard Offner once set it aside as a provincial piece, and later students of the period, among them Miklós Boskovits, gave it back to Pacino's own hand, allowing for help from his workshop. It surfaced on the art market and was bought only in 1947.