Madonna col Bambino in trono Monte San Savino

Artist: Margaritone d'Arezzo
Year: 1250 circa
Current location: Santuario della Madonna delle Vertighe
Original location:

DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION

This beautiful Madonna and Child Enthroned is the work of one of the most interesting Tuscan painters of the 13th century, Margarito d'Arezzo (or Margaritone), as evidenced by the signature at the Madonna's feet, which the artist used to sign his works. The panel comes from the church of Santa Maria a Montelungo in Terranuova Bracciolini, but is currently housed in the Museum of Medieval and Modern Art in Arezzo. It has been dated to the artist's early career, around 1250.

The Madonna is depicted with a rigid frontal stance, drawing inspiration from Byzantine models, but the artist demonstrates his modernity by livening up the figures' expressions and introducing a clear sense of tenderness in the Madonna's gesture as she caresses the blessing child with her foot. However, some scholars (Longhi first and foremost) have linked Margaritone's divergence from Byzantine models to his possible familiarity with Coptic figurative sources (the Copts are the Christians of Egypt), which were more lively and less solemn and formal than Byzantine ones.

Longhi, in particular, recognized his "genuine value as an evocative image of an ancient Coptic-Syriac movement." In this way, Margaritone succeeded in making his objects more human and popular. This would also explain his taste for elegant fabrics such as those worn by the Madonna in this panel.

The star-studded cloak further separates the Madonna from the background and also from the throne, rendered almost as a simple "graphic element" (according to Anna Maria Maetzke), devoid of substance yet nevertheless very refined. Finally, note the lily crown worn by the Madonna: a detail that would indicate Margarito's knowledge of Carolingian sources (probably miniatures).

May 29, 2017
Excerpt from:
https://www.finestresullarte.info/operadelgiorno/2017/614-margarito-d-arezzo-madonna-col-bambino-in-trono.php