Polyptyque de l'Intercession

Around 1420 Gentile da Fabriano arrived in Florence, a painter from the small hill town of Fabriano in the Marches who had already worked for patrons in Venice. He brought with him the glittering International Gothic style, gold grounds, courtly detail, saints in tooled halos, at the very moment a younger Florentine generation was beginning to turn toward the hard geometry we now call the Renaissance. This altarpiece, named for its central scene of Christ and the Virgin interceding with God the Father, comes from those Florence years. It was broken up long ago, its panels now scattered between the Uffizi and London. Among them is a Raising of Lazarus, the dead man rising while the onlookers around him cover their faces.