Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Saints

Painted around 1325, this is a small thing, only about 40 centimetres across, a portable tabernacle meant to fold shut and travel with its owner for private prayer. Florence was then living in the long shadow of Giotto, who had shown that painted figures could carry real weight and feeling, and Jacopo del Casentino belonged to the generation that carried those ideas into modest, affordable devotional panels. The centre holds the Madonna enthroned with the Christ Child, ringed by angels and saints against gold, with a Crucifixion set into the wing beside it. What makes this particular panel matter beyond its charm is a signature. It is the only work Jacopo signed, which makes it the anchor scholars use to recognise his hand in everything else.