Madonna and Child with Angels

This panel originally formed the centre of a larger ensemble flanked by images of Sts Paul and Sebastian. Puccio’s style reveals a strong debt to Bernardo Daddi, a pupil of Giotto who became one of the most important painters in Florence during the first half of the fourteenth century. As opposed to following the miniaturist tendencies of his master, however, Puccio preferred squarely defined, substantive forms that inhabit space. He excelled in modeling the flesh of figures, which is tender and luminous, and in creating the vivid and loving expressions shared between the Madonna and the Infant Christ.