Ognissanti Madonna

The Virgin sits on a Gothic marble throne, her solid body pressing through the blue mantle with a weight no earlier panel had achieved, while kneeling angels offer vases of lilies and roses at her feet and saints crowd behind. Painted for the Ognissanti church in Florence, Giotto's altarpiece can be set directly beside the enthroned Madonnas of his forerunners Cimabue and Duccio: where theirs float on gold in Byzantine majesty, Giotto's Virgin has bulk, sits in real space, and is modeled by light. It marks the decisive turn of Florentine painting from the icon toward the natural world.