Madonna of Humility

Although Battista di Biagio Sanguigni is known primarily as a manuscript illuminator, recant research has identified him as the Master of 1419, the artist who painted an altarpiece in 1419 for the chapel of the prominent Giugni family for their parish church in the Mugello. This work and other devotional panels, such as the Ackland Madonna of Humility, reveal his probable origins in Lorenzo Monaco’s workshop.

In this image, a studious reiteration of a Madonna by Lorenzo Monaco’s shop, the Virgin appears to be sitting or kneeling on the ground, and thus it is referred to as the Madonna of Humility. A bulbous body, robe trimmed in elegant gold finery, and an over-the-top frame with two countering auger columns on each side of the main panel mark an especially evocative art object as well as religious icon portrait.