Maestro di San Torpè
Madonna and Child

1330-35
Tempera on wood
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

This is an example of a western work inspired by the Byzantine Pelagonitissa iconographic type. The child arches his head back to look on his mother's face and grabs onto her veil. Much of the artist's work is considered to be influenced by Cimabue, who had himself been trained by Greek artists resident in Florence.1

The date range cited above is supplied by the Uffizi's label. Some other sources that I consider less authoritative propose a date in the 1320s.

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Photographed at the Uffizi by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.











































1 According to Pisani: "Duccio and Cimabue are certainly the principal points of reference for the style of the 'Maestro di San Torpè,' and thus it seems plausible that the latter began his career in Siena, where he would have been able to familiarize himself with their art" (my translation). For Cimabue's debt to the Greek painters with whom he first studied his art, see Vasari, I, 331-32.