Madonna Enthroned

Once raised over an altar in the Florentine church of Santa Trinita, this towering panel shows the Virgin and Child enthroned above four Old Testament prophets, who peer from the arches at the throne's base. Cimabue builds the throne as a deep architectural scaffold, angling its sides to suggest real space - an ambition pressing against the flat gold field behind, and a step beyond his similar Maesta now in the Louvre. The prophets below hold scrolls foretelling the Virgin Birth, knitting Old and New Testament together. Within a generation his pupil Giotto would carry this drive toward space and weight much further.