Madonna col Bambino, i santi Nicola e Caterina e il donatore

This is about as far back as we can follow Gentile da Fabriano. Painted around 1395, when he was still a young man in the Marche region of central Italy, it is the earliest major work by him that survives, made most likely for the church of Santa Caterina in his home town of Fabriano. That is why Saint Catherine stands at the right, sharing the church's name. On the left, Saint Nicholas presents the man who paid for the panel, kneeling in the plain good clothes of a merchant rather than a nobleman. The gold ground and tooled halos belong to the courtly style Gentile would later carry across Italy. Near the donor's feet is a small golden mark, a circle with rays topped by a cross, the personal sign he stamped on his goods.