Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Saints

This altarpiece was painted in 1355, seven years after the Black Death swept through Florence and killed a large part of the city. Death was close, and so was the fear of judgement. An inscription records that a Florentine named Giovanni Segni paid for the panel to atone for his own sins and those of his ancestors, for the family chapel in the church of San Lucchese near Poggibonsi. Taddeo Gaddi, who had trained for years in Giotto's workshop, crowds the space around the enthroned Madonna with angels. Two offer a pyx and a crown, while others hold vases of flowers and swing censers of incense, a motif Gaddi took from a celebrated painting by Bernardo Daddi in the Florentine oratory of Orsanmichele.