Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni, The Coronation of the Virgin with Saints

1390s
Tempera and gold leaf on panel
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

This is the kind of "polyptych" altarpiece that developed in the 14th century from the simpler forms of the 13th. Wooden pseudo-columns separate the piece into a larger middle panel with a single image of a saint or the Virgin and two or four flanking panels with portraits or narratives. Pointed arches and gold ground are also characteristic of this style, and the more elaborate examples will be topped by finials like the ones seen here. Along the bottom there will be a predella with small narrative panels. In this case the predella panels present a miscellany of narrative subjects, but in many other examples the panels are sequenced into a continuous narrative.

Also see detail pages with photographs with commentary for the following panels in this altarpiece:

• The Annunciation (left and right finials)
• Madonna and Child with Saints (middle finial)
• Four prophets (above the arches)
• Saints on the left
• Saints on the right
• The Coronation of the Virgin
• A Miracle of St. Benedict (First predella panel)
• Baptism of Christ (second predella panel)
• Dormition of the Virgin (middle predella panel)
• Temptation of St. Anthony (fourth predella panel)
• A Miracle of St. Stephen (fifth predella panel)

View the altarpiece in full resolution.
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Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.