The Virgin and Child with Saints

Pisanello was one of the most admired artists of his day in Italy, a court painter and brilliant maker of medals, and yet almost nothing on panel survives that is securely his. This picture, from about 1445, is the only one he signed. Look along the bottom and the signature hides in plain sight, worked into curling green fronds with tiny blue flowers at the corners. The scene splits in two. High up, the Virgin and Child sit in a burst of golden light, while below stand two saints: the old hermit Anthony Abbot, scowling and ringing his bell, and a young, elegant Saint George in gleaming armour and a wide straw hat of the latest French fashion. That hat, worn by a warrior saint, is pure Pisanello, courtly and precise, delighting in the fashions of his own moment.